Trouble Brews for Earth
by Lady1Venus
Summary: ARMADA Sequel to Starscream and Alexis Series. A few years have gone by and the treaty is still going strong. But a renegade of Transformers who were against the treaty have decided to start trouble starting with Earth
1. Home Coming

_Author's Notes: Here is the sequel to "Starscream and Alexis Series" long time waiting. Sorry for the long wait. Thanks for KnucklesRedFury for her ideas and helping me get my a#% in gear to write the sequel. Thank you KnucklesRedFury. This time I'm not making a note of how many chapters I'm making, it will go as long as it needs. My OC Sandy, from the 1st story will be playing a bigger role in this one. Probably other OCs will be added as the story progresses but they will be mentioned when they come in._

**Home Coming**

Three years had passed since Unicron's defeat and Megatron's death. In that time, the Autobots who remained on Earth had fallen into a nice routine. They would work around the base, being sure the debris of the battle from three years ago would not fall into Earth's orbit. On down time, they would escape to the abandoned island as humans and enjoy a day of relaxation. Sometimes they would transport themselves to a winter land and enjoy the fun of snow. They had learnt to ski and do other winter type sports. In the town they lived in, they would get involved in the town's festivities when the time called for it. They would get their human friends to help them out.

In the three years, they had got short visits from their friends from Cybertron but not once did the Autobots on Earth receive a visit from their Prime leader, Optimus Prime. His life was pretty full with rebuilding their home planet. But he would always give his men vacation time on Earth, where they also got to see the joys of the human's world. There was one Autobot who missed Optimus Prime more than any other and everyone on certain days could see how much she missed him.

She loved him like a daughter to a parent. No Autobot tried to tell her otherwise that it was unwise for her to seek a relationship with him for that kind of reason. But they all knew it was futile as he also thought of her like a daughter. So the feelings between the two were mutual. On those days she specially missed him, she had her lover by her side to help her remember the reasons he could not come 'home' and visit.

On the days she couldn't seek comfort from her lover, she would retreat to an abandoned island, which on one side was nearly destroyed, from a volcano that erupted. The other side was still quite untouched and it was the island all the Autobots would escape to, to get some peace and quiet. It was also the same island she once sought out a Mini-Con with her friends when the Autobots and Decepticons were enemies and were battling on trying to retrieve the Mini-Cons, but since Unicron's destruction, the two factions had signed a treaty and now were working together as allies.

Sitting on the beach, smelling the sea air and just listening to the waves and seagulls over, was just what the doctor ordered. Though the orders didn't come from her doctor, they came from her commander. For the past several weeks she had been feeling less and less like herself and began making terrible mistakes. A couple of those mistakes had just caused some of her friends to land in the medical bay where they had to be fixed. She was so losing herself now, not sure where to go or what to do.

She kept playing the scene over and over of how she hurt her friends. They had been doing a routine maintenance check on the security grid, making sure the system was still working well in case humans came too close to the base. It was security that was done once a week. It was nearly her weekly job, along with her Hoist and Blaster. It was a normal day, the sun was high in the sky, and temperatures were rising as summer break had just started. A perfect day for the check to be looked at. But on this day that was when things went totally wrong.

As she continued to sit on the beach, tears began to make tracks down her face. She was about to burst and she had no idea when it was going to happen or if her friends were going to be in the middle of it. She stared at her hands, taking a moment to enjoy in seeing flesh instead of metal. It still tore her up inside being in this form though she had already learnt to accept it.

Her life had taken a drastic change not long before the attack of Unicron. It was on this day, three years that her life was forced to a new way and it always saddened her on this day. Especially when she couldn't spend it with her adapted father, who was not even on the planet. She missed her 'father' very much and so wished to see him again. Yeah she got to speak with him many times since his departure, but it wasn't the same. Oh sure she had her adapted brothers to keep her company which had grown considerably since her life changed.

She had Hotshot and Sideswipe as her favorite brothers but she had later earned the sibling bond with Powerglide and the Aerial Bots. And of course she had the love of her life always by her side when she was feeling blue, but not this time.

Before she left for the island, she had been told he had been sent out towards the Moon to check out the old Moon Base where the former Decepticons members laid refuge. They stayed up there to keep lookout for any activity. So when she was asked by her commanding officer to take a little break, he was no where to be found so she could take him with her.

Now she was alone on the stranded beach, in the same spot where the whole gang had gotten together the day before the Autobots departed for Cybertron and it was the last time she saw her father.

Unknown to her, a few people came up behind her, both with solemn faces. They felt really bad for her as they knew it would have been tough for her later on.

"Alexandra?"

At the name she perked her head, knowing that gruff voice anywhere. When she turned she was surprised to see two humans. Both humans she recognized. One being her love and the other was Blurr. She loved how the Autobots always looked in human form. Blurr always seemed to have a mystery in his face. Even with his dark skin and dark hair, he always looked mysterious.

The two human Transformers walked over to the young woman and sat down on either side of her. Starscream wrapped his arms around, pulling her against him, feeling her body go willingly. Blurr just watched in silence.

"I don't know what happened?" Alexis quietly answered. "One minute I turned off the grid to allow them access and then the next it activated and Blaster and Hoist were injured. And someone it's my fault."

Blurr reached his hand over and grasped hers, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Everyone knows it was just an accident. Jetfire told us what had happened after we got them to the infirmary. Hoist and Blaster are ok now."

"I feel so bad," she muffled as she buried her head in Starscream's side.

Starscream gently kissed her hair and held her tightly as she silently cried on him. "And it doesn't help for the fact that three years ago today you lost your father."

"Alexis," Blurr said. "You do understand why Jetfire asked you to take a break, don't you." He watched as she tried her best to shake her head 'no' while being huddled against the Transformer she loved. "He had asked you to take a break because he knows you've been really tired lately. And fatigue causes misjudgment."

"But…"

Starscream bent lower so he would whisper in her ear. "Alexandra, it's the truth. Jetfire loves you like everyone else does. We all knew you would make mistakes. Even Megatron liked you and as much as that really bugs me, at least he had good tastes."

Those words caused her to snort in a chuckle.

Blurr heard a noise behind them. He used his senses to figure if what was behind them was friend or foe. When he concluded it was friend, he turned. His mouth went slack jaw as he stared wide eyed at what…who was behind him. He slightly nudged Starscream, trying to get the seeker's attention. Starscream carefully looked to where Blurr pointed. Starscream stared wide eyed for a moment before showing the signs of a bright smile and then looked down at the girl huddled against him.

"Love," he whispered. "I have to get up for a moment."

He moved away forcing Alexis to let go. "Starscream, I don't want you…" she had turned to try and grab his hand but she suddenly stopped when she noticed three people were behind her. She looked up and nearly fell over. What she saw directly behind her rendered her speechless. She stared at the men who stood behind her, slack jaw.

"I take it that this is a nice surprise?" one of the men said, clearly the oldest. He wasn't the tallest but in his stance, one could not ignore his salt and pepper hair, blowing in the slight breeze. The last time she saw that look it was the last day she spent any time with all the Autobots. In his light cotton shirt and casual pants, astonished her.

She had never seen such a beautiful sight since the day the Autobots went swimming. Alexis rubbed her tears away as she slowly turned her body completely around and slowly stood, not once removing her eyes from the older man. The man who stood closest to her gave her a soft smile, which forced her to feel a small smile form over her sadness. She barely paid attention to the other two men who were beside him but at that moment, she didn't care.

She took a slow step towards him, ignoring the sand as it began to track into her sandals. She tried to form words but nothing could form into sounds.

The older man slightly cocked his and then opened his arms. He watched as tears quickly came to her eyes again and her smile brightened. Before he knew it she ran into his waiting arms and hugged him tightly.

"Optimus," she whispered in his cotton shirt.

Optimus wrapped his arms tightly around her and her close. "I told you I would be back someday," he soothed quietly. His fingers found their way to her hair. He took note that her hair was a little longer than when he last saw her and he could see her young teenage features were melting into an adult.

"It's ok Alexis," he continued. "I've already been informed in what happened earlier. It must have been tough."

"Stupid human emotions," she grumbled.

Optimus looked up at his men and nodded. His nod indicated that he wanted to be alone with the woman. The others quickly left the beach, heading off towards the old broken down rollercoaster that the Autobots began fixing up for the past year now. It has been a little tough as getting the materials were tough, but the Autobots enjoyed working on it.

Alexis could hear the four men move away. As she listened, knowing full well Optimus just gave them a silent command for the two to be alone, she thought to earlier in the day when whole problem started.

[Flashback]

Waking to the slight disappointment of her bed partner wasn't in the room; she got out off her stone slab of a bed and did her normal routine of getting her system full of substance of Energon. She loved waking with him by her side in the mornings, but not every morning they were able to see each other. As soon as she had her normal amount of Energon, she made her way towards the command center to inform her commander she was going to disconnect the security grid to do her weekly check. Once she had her commander's ok, she headed off to the grid room. To her surprise, Hoist and Blaster were just outside the room waiting for her.

"I take it you guys are helping me," she quietly said.

"You betcha," Blaster said in his usual cheery voice. "Perhaps later we could catch some waves."

"Work first," she said with a small smile.

She disconnected the grid and allowed her friends to enter so they could check to be sure the circuitry wasn't breaking down. When they were in the room, she suddenly felt lonely. This was the anniversary of the day the Transformer she looked up to had left for Cybertron. It always saddened her on this day and this time she didn't get the comfort from the one she loved to help her through the day.

She felt her body trying to fall to the floor from her sadness but she had to be a Transformer first. She straightened her body up and was about to walk into the room when suddenly she felt a dizzy spell hit her. She leaned against the wall to let it pass. When the spell finally passed, she went to move away from the wall, but her hand had hit the switch to activate the grid.

The sounds of screams caused her to jump from the wall and realize what she had just done. Her spark had leaped her to throat at the shrieks.

"Hoist! Blaster!" she shrieked as sounds started blaring everywhere.

Taking note the grid was turned on, she quickly turned it off and ran into the room. Her body clanked to the floor between her two friends as she saw surge marks all over their armor. When the grid was reactivated, an alarm was sounded throughout the base that something was wrong.

"I'm sorry!" she cried over and over.

It wasn't long before Jetfire and Red Alert quickly came running into the room.

"Alexis!" Jetfire blurted, grabbing a hold of her.

Not long after the medical officer and Vice Commander entered the room, Blurr and Starscream soon ran in as well and saw what happened.

"Starscream. Blurr," he medic commanded. He didn't bother to look at Alexis. Whatever happened he knew it was just an accident. "Help me get them to the Infirmary."

The three bots quickly worked on getting the injured, unconscious, warriors out of the room. Red Alert hefted Hoist into his arms just as Starscream pulled the warrior into his own. He offered out his other arm for Red Alert to drape Blaster over him. When the seeker had both bots, Blurr came up beside him and draped Blaster's other arm over him while Red Alert did the same with Hoist. They quickly disappeared as Alexis continued to cry.

"Alexis," Jetfire tried to get her attention but she kept on crying, sprouting words that she didn't mean to. Jetfire had to grab the sides of her face and force her to look at him.

"Alexis, what happened?" he demanded softly.

"I don't know," she whimpered when she finally realized she was faced with her commanding officer. "I took a dizzy spell and had to lean…" she paused, "against the wall. I guess I must have accidentally reactivated the grid. I didn't mean to."

Jetfire watched as she was falling apart right in front of him. Something was happening to Alexis and she wasn't being completely honest with him. "Alexis," he finally said after several minutes, allowing her the time to calm down. "I want you to take the rest of the day off. Go out and get some air."

"But Jetfire," she pleaded. "I can't take time…"

"That's not a request Alexis, that's an order. Once you've calmed down, we'll discuss on what happened and why."

Alexis looked at him and began crying again. She felt herself being pushed against him. "Alexis," he whispered in her audio receptors. "I wish you would speak to me on what's wrong. Please, why don't you go to the abandoned island. No one will be there to disturb you. We know it was just an accident."

[End Flasback]

When it was just him and Alexis, Optimus pulled her to near arms length before grasping the sides of her face so she would look up at him.

"Alexis your emotions are not stupid," he said. "Though you should have told Jetfire what has been truly bothering you. If he had known, he wouldn't have had you anywhere near the equipment today."

"Optimus. I'm a transformer now. I have responsibilities. I can't let my old emotions and feelings to get in the way. I have learnt to accept what has happened to me. I don't want to be treated like a special case because I was a human."

"You will always be a special 'case' to me," he stated firmly. "You may be part of this team but I don't have to like it. Just like I hate having Elita-1 as leader of the Femme Autobots. And I will treat you the way I feel. You are my daughter."

Fresh tears came to her eyes as she stared at him. She remembered the day he told her she was like a daughter to him, but he didn't openly call her daughter until that moment and brought much happiness to her. Though at the same time, she wondered what her real father was doing. Since becoming a Transformer, she lost all communication with him. She didn't want to speak with him in case he was to find out what happened.

Since her mother moved to Maine, he hadn't even tried contacting her either. Alexis did keep tabs on her father, seeing on where he was staying, only because Jetfire insisted to the point that it was an order. And when he gave orders she had to follow, as he was her commanding officer.

Alexis pulled herself back into his embrace and held him tightly. "I've missed you," she whispered.

Optimus bent a little and lightly kissed her head. When he was on Earth and would watch the Television, he would always pay more attention to the shows that showed much bonding between family members. He enjoyed watching the soaps but watching family oriented shows where everyone would learn a lesson was more his idea.

"I was able to get some time off and came here so I could see you."

She looked up at him. "You mean you're not here to stay?"

Optimus shock his head. "No, I'm afraid. Rebuilding Cybertron is taking longer than expected. Both Shockwave and myself have learnt there have been some of our men who disagree with the treaty and they have left Cybertron. I have been trying to track them down, but have no luck so far."

"You mean not all Autobots are happy about the treaty?" she asked.

"Apparently not. I presumed there would be some Decepticons, but I didn't think any of men would feel that way. I fear something is going to happen but the question is when and where."

"When did this happen?"

"It's been happening slowly since getting to Cybertron. More so in the last six months, which is around the time Jetfire started reporting to me of the mistakes you were making. I knew then I had to find a way to come and see you, to find out what is wrong."

Alexis tried to turn herself away from the man before her, but he wouldn't let her, so she did the only thing she could do, averted her eyes to the sand.

"Alexis, the men look to you for guidance here and the team won't function when their second in command is out of commission."

"Maybe I don't want to lead anymore," she whispered.

Optimus signed. "Alexis, I didn't say being second in command will be easy. I also didn't say getting used to being a Transformer was going to be easy either. I know you still have human emotions and a human life. And I'm sure you would love to be with your friends when they have their achievements. But if you keep this emotions locked up, it will cause harm. And I don't just mean leading your fellow comrades to battle if needed."

"But how? How can I let it out? The ones I really love are out of my reach. My Mom lives in Maine my father has become very ignorant to me since my Mom left. He hasn't even tried to look me up since just before my birthday when you guys all gave me my last human birthday party.

"Starscream is great but sometimes I don't always feel like I could talk to him about everything that I'm feeling. He will always be there for me, but he can't really give me advice and neither can the others. And there is you. The one I really want to talk with but you're not even here on the planet anymore. You're on Planet Cybertron rebuilding the planet and I understand that's important."

"So that's what the problem is," he concluded. "You're family has split up."

Alexis finally managed to turn away from him and took a step towards the ocean. She wrapped her arms around herself. "I don't know what to do, anymore. It hurts to know everyone I love is too far away for me to talk to."

Optimus pulled her back to him and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "I'm here now," he said soothingly. "Tell me what's wrong?"

"I don't know what to do anymore. I'm a Transformer but at one time I was a human. I'm missing out on the life that I once had. I can't see my old friends other than Rad and the others. And they have begun to have their own lives with their own girlfriends. I'm so lost. But I know I'm a Transformer now and that is what is suppose to matter, but it's killing me. I can't even celebrate my birthday properly anymore. And I miss you too much. I can't speak to you like a daughter to a father. And I want a father right now."

Optimus was quickly stunned as she quickly turned in his arms and buried her head against him and openly cried. He held the girl against him as tight as he could without crushing her as she cried. He had no idea what to say or do about her little dilemma. She was finally being torn, which he suspect would happen but didn't know when, between two lives. He was now glad he took some time to spend with her.

When her tears were all spent, he felt her legs give out. Being careful, he slowly her and himself to the ground. When they were sitting in the sand, he could see Starscream coming towards them. When Starscream was close enough, Optimus could feel Alexis body suddenly became heavy.

"Is she alright?" Starscream asked with concern. When Optimus asked everyone to leave, Starscream decided to take a walk on the beach. He kept the two in his sights but not hearing range. The moment he saw that they were slowly going to the ground, he became very worried and went to them. He ran until he was in hearing range, but slowed to a brisk walk.

Optimus looked at his daughter before looking to the love of her life. "She just cried herself to sleep. She's emotionally drained. Lost between two worlds and it's finally taking a toll on her. I had a feeling it was coming but the question was when."

"So you picked a good time to come back to Earth," the seeker answered quietly.

"Yes but I'm only able to be here for a few days. I have do have some business here, but seeing Alexis was the top of my list."

"I wish I could help her." Starscream knelt and lightly touched Alexis' hair.

"Unfortunately," Optimus said. "You are not able to. What her problem deals with me."

"You? Why you?"

"I'm her father and she needs a father right now."

Starscream nodded in understanding. "She hasn't really had a father since before we even came to Earth."

"On a personal level, has she been feeling distant lately?"

"As a matter of fact I have noticed she has been. Shortly after…" he trailed off.

Optimus raised an eyebrow. "Starscream. Is there something you're not telling me?"

Starscream sighed and lowered his head. "On her 17th birthday, we held a birthday party for her and later we shared something special."

"Something special?" the Autobot leader questioned.

The Autobot leader could see his warrior form a blush. "She and I…are connected…"

"So not only you have mated on a Transformer level but on a human level as well." Optimus caught on to what the seeker was trying to tell him. He saw the seeker's blush brightened. "Starscream you don't need to feel ashamed. I can't really do anything. I knew it was bound to happen."

Starscream looked up. "Sir?"

"You two love each other and I'm happy for the two of you. I can't stop the two of you even if I wanted to."

The two were quiet for a while and soon were joined by their other comrades. Alexis stayed huddled against Optimus until she finally woken up. When she did, she noticed her friends surrounded her. She saw Starscream and Blurr were sitting in front of Optimus as humanized Springer and Powerglide were sitting on either side of their leader. Once she had realized she had cried herself to sleep, Optimus came up with an idea for the five of them to spend the rest of the day, relaxing on the beach and perhaps go for a swim.

Alexis was against the idea until Springer and Starscream came up with the idea of grabbing her from Optimus and threw her in the water. She had squealed in shock and delight at once being thrown in the water. When she emerged from the water, in her shorts and T-shirt, sandals long gone, but on the beach, her friends and father, in the water, surrounded her. She quickly tried to attack her lover and friend for dunking her and Optimus couldn't help but laugh as she ended up being thrown again just as a wave came towards them.


	2. Campout

**Campout**

The sound of the ocean was the first she heard. The sounds gave her a sense of relaxation and calmness. She had heard from many people that the sounds of water or waves hitting the beach could give the sense of relaxation. She never believe those people, that was until now. Now she understood why many people loved being near water. They loved the sounds the water made. She felt compelled to listen to the sounds of the waves and fall back to sleep but another sound slightly pulled her away from the lures of sleep. She could make out the sounds of cackling. But it wasn't a laugh; it was more the sound of wood burning.

As she concentrated on the cackling, pulling her more wide-awake, she realized she was lying down on the beach, on top of a blanket. There was another blanket over top of her. But it was more the feeling that when she last remembered anything, she was in the arms of her father and now she wasn't and it was quite bright now and it wasn't either. In fact through her closed eyelids she could tell there was only slight illumination.

The last thing she was able to remember was when her friends had thrown her in the water. She was quite surprised at that but she knew they were only playing with her. Once they had finally stopped throwing her in the water, the small group had just decided to swim around for a while. Before long, the water began to cool as the air was starting to drift off to evening. She was the first to get out and dry off. And being in her shorts and T-shirt, didn't really help matters much. Luckily her father gave her an extra blanket. Before long, she ended up feeling exhaustion hit her like a ton of bricks. She leaned against her father and soon fell asleep.

Before taking the chance to find out where she was, she continued to listen for any other signs. She breathed a sigh of relief as she could hear quiet voices. Deciding now was a good time as any she opened her eyes. She was quite surprised to find herself in front of a fire. Looking to the sky she could tell the sun was gone but it was still twilight. On the other side of the fire, she saw her friends still in human form. Of course they would be in human form as they couldn't turn back to their normal selves until the next afternoon or they went back into the 'pool of transformation' and thought to be themselves again. She also did not notice her father nor lover was in the area.

"What time is it?" she asked, getting her friends attention, as they were not paying any attention to her.

The three men looked at her and it was her friend who first wanted to be sure she was all right that answered, her mystery friend, Blurr. Even with his dark hair and dark eyes, he would always look regal. "Half passed eight."

Alexis sat up, but keeping the blanket around her. "Where are Optimus and Starscream?"

"They had to return back to the base, but they should be back shortly," Springer said. His short dark hair was still damp from his earlier swim. Just before it got too dark, he had decided to take one last quick dip back into the water.

"I'll start on getting you some food," Powerglide said. He was the shortest out of the three men with short light hair. He stood up and walked over to a bag of supplies that Alexis did not see earlier. Of course she was too busy embracing her father who she hadn't seen in three years.

Spinger noticed his vice commander was upset about something. He walked over to her and rested his hands on her covered legs. "Alexis," he said quietly. "Is something wrong?"

She looked up at her friend. "I don't know," she admitted quietly. "I didn't think there was something wrong, but after today, I'm not even sure I'm fit to lead anymore."

"Mistakes are always made," Springer tried to argue. "And you made an honest one."

"Springer if I didn't have my mind clouded with my problems, Blaster and Hoist wouldn't have been hurt."

"Alexis," he said sternly. "Stop beating yourself up. Optimus isn't upset and neither is Jetfire. For the past three years, you have done a wonderful job at being our Vice Commander. One incident wouldn't tatter that job. You are a wonder at leading us."

"Springer. If say we were to go into battle, I would suffer greatly because of my problems."

"Alexis…" Springer stopped when he felt someone touch his shoulder. He looked up to see his supreme commander. Springer stepped back.

Alexis, with her head down, did not see what was going on but she felt Springer move away. But another set of hands grasped hers.

"Alexis," he said in a soft but commanding voice. He watched as she looked up and slightly smiled. "Hoist and Blaster are going to be ok. Jetfire had asked Starscream and I back to the base so he could talk to us and he would like me to tell you to take a break."

Alexis slightly frowned. "Why because I hurt my friends?"

"It's not a punishment. You were once human. Jetfire sometimes forgets that. We all know that you want to help around the regular maintenance but he should have realized sooner something was wrong and he should have not allowed you to be near strong equipment."

"Optimus…"

"Please don't make me have to place as an order," he said with some sternness. "Please Alexis take some time off and relax. I get nothing but good praises from the men and femmes here. I'll be staying here for a few days. Hoist and Blaster should be up and around tomorrow and they will also be taking some time off."

Alexis lowered her head in shame. "Yes sir."

"Alexis," he quietly warned, gently lifting her head so he could look her in the eyes. He sighed deeply. "Why don't you and I take an afternoon in a day or so and go and do something. Just the two of us. Why don't you show me some things of this world I have yet to see from a human's point of view?"

"I'm not sure I follow."

"Daughter," he said soothingly, dropping the leadership tone. "I would like to go out with just you to do something you've always wanted to do with your real father."

Tears brimmed her eyes at his suggestion. It was something she always wanted to. The tears escaped when she felt his soft thumbs touch her cheeks. She also loved the idea of hearing him call her daughter. She hadn't heard that word in a very long time.

She jumped wrapping her arms around him, crying on his shoulder. "Father," she whispered.

Standing on the other side of the campfire, Starscream watched with a soft grin. He knew seeing Optimus is what she really needed. He watched as Springer walked over to him.

"Why were you two called back?" the triple changer asked.

"Jetfire wanted to inform us on the conditions of Hoist and Blaster."

"In my opinion she shouldn't have been anywhere near the equipment. She's under too much stress right now and I never knew why until today."

"She misses her father too much and her emotional support from her real family barely exists," Starscream said sadly.

"We're her family," Springer protested. "We're the ones that should matter most."

"Yes we are her family, her extended family. She was once human. She can never see her mother for more than a day. And her real father has not tried to look her up for quite sometime. She's been able to keep tabs on him, but only enough to learn where he's living and working, which is no longer the same job he had when she last saw him."

"So where is he living?"

"Right in our town and works on the mountain."

"Are you telling me Alexis' real father lives practically beside her?"

Starscream nodded. "Not only that but also right above her. The last time Alexis got to see her father, he had announced he was getting remarried and he wanted her to move in with him. But she stood up for herself and told him no. And with all this stress she's been having, Jetfire would like Alexis to take a vacation. And if that requires her to keep becoming human everyday to do human things, I can't stop her."

"Why don't you go with her?"

The seeker finally turned to the triple changer. "Springer, I do have my own duties. I can't drop them to always make sure my mate is comfortable."

Mate. That was one word that still felt a little alien for Starscream to voice so openly. Though everyone had known from the beginning Starscream and Alexis were bonded by Transformer standards, it took him a long time to speak of it. It was only shortly after he and Alexis mated by human standards that he actually started saying 'mate'.

"I know you can't help her at every turn. She's our vice commander. She's got to learn from her mistakes. But with Optimus here, you probably could ask for a few days off to give your mate the support she needs."

"I think at this time Optimus is the only one who is going to help her. Optimus is the one she's been missing most lately. And now he is here…she needs a father. Besides Kiaudica is also with her to help."

"I'm still confused on Kiaudica. She's been dead for millions of years and yet she exists within Alexis."

"Yes, I'm still confused on it too. But if it wasn't for Kiaudica, I would not be an Autobot right now."

"What do you mean?" the triple changer looked at his friend. "From my knowledge it was Alexis who helped you to become an Autobot."

"That it was. It was her kindness to want to understand and her willingness to give me trust," Starscream smiled at the memory. Remembering when she came to him and told her about his father and mother. "But if it weren't for Kiaudica, Alexis would not be here today. When Alexis was a baby, she was dying. Kiaudica used the last of her power to keep the infant alive. Not caring if it would completely kill her or not. But it actually preserved her life but it wasn't until Alexis was wounded in the leg during a mission that we actually learnt of Kiaudica's existence."

"Wow. I didn't know that. I only knew that before Unicron arrived, Red Alert learnt of Kiaudica while examining Alexis." He watched as his friend nodded. "I've noticed her mood has been a little lighter since this afternoon," Springer lightly smiled. "I'm glad he's here. I fear for Alexis."

"You're not the only one. She's only been our Vice Commander for 3 years and she's beginning to make mistakes and I believe it's due to stress."

"Optimus, sir," Blurr said as he walked over to his supreme leader and dear friend. "What is our plans for this evening?"

Optimus turned to his warrior and softly smiled. "Blurr," he said. "We are here to have an overnight camping trip. The boys will be here shortly. Tomorrow we're each going to be changing back at different times so all we can do is just sit here and relax until then."

"Rad and other others are coming?" Alexis asked as she lifted her head. "I thought they were working this summer?"

Optimus turned and smiled. "Yes they are, but they don't start working until next week. So they want to spend this time with their old friends."

"Optimus!"

Alexis slightly jumped at the sound. She looked passed Optimus to see three tall human teens and one that wasn't too tall, but he wasn't short either, though he was quite rounded.

"Rad! Billy! Fred! Carlos!" Alexis called cheerfully.

Optimus stood and moved out of the way so his daughter could run to her friends. And the movement wasn't disappointing as she quickly ran to the closest one, Carlos, and gave him a tight hug. Starscream had stood at the sound of his leader being called but it wasn't until he saw Alexis run with joy and quickly embraced her human friends before he realized who had called his leader. It was Rad. Once Alexis had her hugs from the boys, she moved away.

"What brings you guys here?" she asked.

Billy smiled. "We were shock to learn Optimus was back and once we were able to finally calm down from the excitement…"

"Who told you I was back?" Optimus asked, smile not leaving.

"Earlier I went to call Alexis," Rad explained. "To see if she wanted to do something this evening but Sideswipe told us there was an accident and Blaster and Hoist were injured. Before I had the chance to ask what had happened he rushed out saying that you were here."

Alexis lowered her head in shame, but she did it in a way so the others wouldn't really notice, but Optimus did.

"But once we heard you were back," Rad continued. "I got excited. A short time ago, Jetfire contacted us to ask if we could come to the base in full camping gear."

"Yeah," Fred said with a goofy grin. "And we couldn't very well say no, now could we. We didn't even know why or asked why. All we knew was you were back and you were on here on the island with Alexis."

"Let's get our camping gear set up," Carlos bounced in excitement.

Alexis couldn't help but smirk at Carlos for his childish antics. It was one of the things she really missed about him. She watched as Springer and Powerglide offered to help the boys with setting up their gear. Once they were set up, everyone was soon sitting around the campfire.

In a circle around the fire, Alexis was sitting between Starscream and Optimus, leaning a bit more closer to Optimus than her mate, but he didn't mind. On Starscream's other side was Carlos, Springer, Powerglide, Rad, Billy, Blurr, Fred and Rad taking up Optimus' opposite side completing the circle.

"I haven't had this in a long time," Carlos commented.

Starscream slightly glared at the African American boy. "What do you mean in a long time? You just did this two months ago."

"Yeah, but Starscream," Fred said. "We haven't had a campout with Optimus in three years. And it's been just a little longer since we had a campout with all the Autobots."

Rad looked at his female friend and saw her slight sadness. He knew not to ask her what was wrong where she was amongst too many friends. But he knew with Optimus being here, he would be able to help her with whatever had made her upset. He had an idea what that was and that idea had something to do with their two friends who were still lying in the infirmary, complaining they wanted to go back to their duties. But he wasn't going to ask unless he was told.

Just before warping to the island, he told the others not to ask Alexis what had happened to their friends and he also informed them of his theories. They agreed that they thought Alexis had something to do with it and agreed to not to press it as they knew Alexis didn't mean for the accident to happen.

"Hey Alexis," Rad finally said as he peered around Optimus. "Perhaps sometime you could meet my girlfriend."

Powerglide raised an eyebrow. "Rad has a girlfriend? When did this happen?"

Optimus looked at the tall boy beside him, who stood nearly to his height. "That I wouldn't mind knowing," Optimus commented.

"What? You telling me Rad hasn't bragged to you guys about it," Carlos chuckled.

"Apparently not," Starscream glowered.

"He met her last year," Fred said. "And it was only last month when she decided to give him the time of day."

"Of course," Billy said. "It took Rad long enough to get the courage to talk to her. You should have seen it when he finally got the courage," Billy continued with a laugh.

"Yeah he looked like a shaking leaf when he finally decided to take the plunge."

"Guys," Rad said sheepishly. "They don't need to know everything."

Alexis slightly moved from Optimus' side. "Oh and why not?" she asked. "You guys have done your fair share of embarrassing moments to me before we met the Autobots."

"Yeah and we heard all the stunts you kids pulled on Alexis, so why not hear about another person instead," Powerglide offered.

Optimus chuckled as he watched his friend blush. "So you have a girlfriend. Remember our agreement."

Rad looked at the Autobot leader. "I won't. She has asked me a few times what I know that she doesn't and I told her that it's not my place to say or even my secret to give out. I guess she accepts that. Since she has brought it up since."

"How long ago was that?" Springer asked.

"Two days ago," Rad answered. "Did anyone bring the marshmallows?"

"You can nearly sure bet that Gumpy here made sure to bring some," Blurr said as he pointed to the boy beside him.

"I'm not Gumpy," Fred whined, delivering a small laugh from the group. "Hey! I can't help it that I get hungry easily. But yes, I did bring marshmallows. I even brought some graham crackers and chocolate."

"Graham crackers?"

Alexis pulled completely away from Optimus. "S'mores!" She watched as her big friend nodded with a smile. "I haven't had s'mores in forever?"

"S'mores?" Optimus asked, quite intrigued.

"It's a form of snack," Rad explained. "It's when you take the roasted marshmallows, but not too roasted, and smear it on graham crackers mixed with chocolate."

"How do you do that?" Springer cocked his head.

"Fred, toss the supplies," Alexis asked. She quickly grabbed the bag of goodies that were tossed to her. "Starscream can you grab those sticks Rad had asked to gather up."

The second her mate handed her a stick, the Autobots watched in fascination as Alexis quickly took a marshmallow and poked in on the stick and then placed the marshmallow end of the stick in the fire, twirling it every few seconds. When she found it was ready enough she pulled the stick back. She soon grabbed a piece of chocolate and two crackers.

With the stick between her legs she brought the crackers on either side of the hot marshmallow with the chocolate in the middle as well. She then pulled off the marshmallow from the stick, letting the stick fall to the sand, before taking a bite.

"There, now you have a S'more," Rad answered as Alexis breathed in, taking in the taste.

"Let me try that," Powerglide said. Before long the sticks were distributed around the fire and soon more marshmallows were sitting in the fire. Within moments, each Autobot and human was enjoying their S'mores.

"This is delicious," Springer said. "I've never tasted anything like it."

Fred tried to agree but he was too busy munching on his. Blurr looked at him. "You will never learn, will you?" Fred looked at him, gave him a nervous laugh and shook his head before going back to his snack.

When everyone had their fill of their campfire snacks, they all leaned back, enjoying the silence for several moments, just allowing the distant waves and the cackling of the fire to be the only sounds.

When Alexis had enough of the silence, she stood up and asked if she could have a moment with Starscream. The two moved away from the campfire, far enough so their friends couldn't see them but not far enough to not lose sight of the fire.

"Alexandra," he said, using her full name. "What is it?"

She wrapped her arms around him. "I just wanted to have a few moments alone with you, is all. This time tomorrow night we'll be back being our normal selves and right now I would just like a few moments to hold you like a human. It's one of the things I miss most about being human. I no longer can enjoy the simple pleasures that humans have limited access and that they take for granted and don't even know it."

Starscream wrapped his arms tightly around her. "I love you," he whispered in her auburn hair, which now reached just past her shoulders.

Alexis lifted her head but only far before she felt lips crushed against her own. She loved it when Starscream would kiss her. Sometimes she preferred human kissing over being a Transformer but other times it was opposite. But this time she was really leaning towards human kissing. The moment she felt his lips, she quickly opened her mouth, giving him the full invitation to deepen the kiss, which he did immediately.

Just as Starscream's hands began to move their way to the front of her body, there was a quiet voice, clearly his throat. The couple broke their heated kiss to look at the owner of the voice.

"I know you two like having your quiet moments, but if you don't return soon," he said. "Then the boys are going to be leaning towards you two having a little more than private conversation, if you get my drift."

Alexis leaned her head against Starscream's chest; lightly blushing on what Optimus was referring to. "You're right. Carlos would get the wrong idea quickly and he would never let me live it down."

"I take it, they don't know you have mated the human way as well as the Transformer?"

Starscream shook his head. He slightly pulled Alexis away. "Come, my love," he said to Alexis. "Your friends came here to visit with you. We have plenty of time to ourselves."

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and the three returned to the campfire. Once the three were sitting back at the circle, Carlos looked at his friend. "So where did you two go off to?"

"None of your business," Starscream snapped.

Alexis lightly touched his shoulder. "Carlos, what goes between a commander and her warrior can be confidential."

Optimus smiled at her way of evading the question. The other Autobots caught on to what Alexis was saying but they didn't say anything. The Autobots were the only ones to know the full relationship between Starscream and Alexis.

"Ok," Rad said. "We've had some S'mores. So what do we do now?"

"Tell campfire stories and we all know Alexis was always the best to give the good tales," Carlos said. "And we all know how she's never said the same story twice."

"Perhaps one of these times," Alexis said with a smile. "You should learn to tell a story."

"Me?" Carlos was taken aback. He raised his hands in front of him, shaking them back and forth. "No way, dude. From hearing the many times you've scared the crap out of me so many times, I could never be as good as you."

Starscream leaned toward Alexis and whispered in her ear. "Why not let Kiaudica tell one of her adventures. I'm sure that will really scare the heck out of the boys. Fighting against the Decepticons was always a frightening tale to tell."

Alexis looked at her mate with a light smile. "I would be honored to," she said softly.

The four boys looked at each other as Alexis spoke in a very soft voice.

Billy looked at Carlos before giving him glare. "Now look at what you did?"

"What did I do?" Carlos asked in defense.

"You want Alexis to tell a scary tale and that's what she's about to do…or rather Kiaudica will."

"Ki…Kiaudica?" Carlos whipped his head to Alexis to see it to be true. He saw in her eyes a different type of determination. It wasn't the same look Alexis just had a moment ago.

"Yes, Carlos?" Alexis questioned in the soft voice.

"Errr…I…well if you like I could try," Carlos stuttered.

Alexis softly chuckled. "What's wrong? Afraid of what sort of stories I could tell from my experience with the Decepticons?"

Carlos' eyes widened as he noticed the deceased female Autobot had just challenged him. He straightened his back and gave the look of defiance. "Bring on girl! I handle anything you throw."

Starscream chuckled with a near evil sound. "We shall see. With her knowledge of Alexis' past and with her own past, she probably could mingle quite the story that will sound like a human experience and you probably won't know which parts are human and which are Autobot experience."

"Well let's here it," Billy said, quite intrigued. "I've never heard an Autobot campfire story before. So this should be quite interesting."

Doing what she had done several times in the past when telling a story, Alexis asked for a flashlight. She turned it on, pointing the light towards the sky, but the light was close to her body to light up her chin, causing her face to give the eerie glow of a ghost and she began her tale. First starting out with a nice setting which turned bad by the middle.

By the time Kiaudica was done telling her tale, Carlos was nearly hiding behind Starscream as Fred was nearly shaking in fear under the blanket he had wrapped around himself because the story had given him quite the cold chill. Kiaudica even had a couple of the Autobots slightly trembling but not as bad as the boys.

Optimus outright laughed at the display of his men and the boys around him. "Kiaudica, you didn't have to over due it."

"Carlos challenged me, I had to rise up to the challenge. You know me Optimus, sir," she said.

When Carlos finally found his voice, he looked at Alexis. "Wow…that's like describing in detail a Nightmare on Elm street movie, but your story was even better than the one I had watched a year or so ago. And I thought that was creepy."

"That serves you right," Alexis said in her normal voice.

Rad looked at his watch. "Holy cow!" he blurted. "It's nearly one in the morning."

"Well team," Optimus stretched. "I suppose it's time to head to sleep."

The Autobots soon moved away from the fire and grabbed their sleeping bags, which Optimus and Starscream had brought with them when they had returned. Alexis crawled in the sleeping bag Starscream had. It was a double size, big enough for the two to fit. They quickly cuddled up together, allowing each other's breathing to lull them to sleep. The other Autobots and boys were soon asleep as well.


	3. Day Out

**Day Out**

Bored was the only thing she could describe herself being. She had enjoyed herself the evening her and her friends had the campout on the beach but since then it had been boring for her. Alexis was ordered to take some time off. She still felt bad for what happened to Hoist and Blaster though they tried assuring her several times that they were fine. Blaster even tried making it as a joke and Alexis would laugh about it but when they weren't around, her laughing would cease. Starscream was getting very worried. He had noticed the change in his mate.

Seeing that his mate was in such gloom, he walked over to her and pulled her into his arms as best as her armor would allow him.

"Alexandra," he said. "Please talk to me."

"What is there to talk about?" she asked. "I have been taken off duty."

Starscream scowled before snapping her body to face him. "Alexis. I love you, you know that. But if you keep having your feelings bottled up, then you will fail the team. Those men out there count on your leadership."

"Don't you think I don't know that," she answered quietly. "But how can I move on when I can hurt them? They are my friends, my family."

He pulled her close to him and hugged her tightly. "Perhaps you could talk to Optimus about this. Or why not Hoist."

"I can't take to him," she muffled against his armored chest.

"Why not? Because you had injured him the other day? Alexis you know for a fact that he would be one the best to talk to you. Remember Megatron did injure him."

Alexis was about to say something more when they both heard their door chimes. Starscream looked up to the door and glared at it before answering. To his surprise it was Optimus who came in.

"Optimus," Starscream greeted.

The name forced Alexis to pull away from her mate. She looked at her commander.

Optimus took a deep breath. "My visit is slightly business," he quietly stated. "I was kind of hoping perhaps Alexis could show me around town."

"Around town?" Alexis questioned. "Why around town? Aren't you the one who commanded last year for us to not really use the lake as a means to get away from our duties?"

Optimus coughed. "Yes…er… I did say that. But I came here to Earth strictly to see you. You can call it a vacation. Are you up to it?"

"But you just said that it's slightly business," Starscream questioned. "How does that sound business when it's actually an adventure?"

"It's my business to get my daughter to smile again."

Alexis slightly smiled before looking to her mate only to see him softly smile down at her. "Go," he said quietly. He leaned forward to lightly kiss her soft forehead. "You deserve some time away to do human things. Human is what you are first."

"Starscream is right," Optimus said. "You are originally human and we should respect that. You became an Autobot to help protect your planet from Unicron, now he is gone. And though you have taken to be a soldier with pride and have honored your duties as a warrior and leader, you do need to be a human too, when it's possible."

"Go my love," Starscream said. "Go and be with the parent you adopted. I have to see Cyclonus and Demolisher anyway."

"Take Wheeljack with you," Optimus suggested. "I'm sure Cyclonus and Demolisher would like some company."

Starscream nodded before giving his mate a quick peck. He then walked away and left the room. Alexis turned to watch him leave before directing her attention to the bot who was still in the room.

Optimus walked further into the room and rest a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Come on Alexis, let's go and enjoy the beautiful sunshine. Perhaps we'll come across your friend Sandy or the boys."

"That would be nice. Sandy doesn't know you're back, unless the guys told her."

The two soon left the room and headed towards the underside of the base. As they headed down the long stairwell that originally would lead to nothing but complete darkness, but since her transformation, it was converted with lighting, Alexis couldn't help but feel a little excited. Actually going into town with Optimus has been a slight dream of hers ever since Optimus had left for Cybertron to help rebuild it.

Once the two reached the pool, Alexis took a look around the area. In the three years since becoming a Transformer, between the boys, Sandy and her, they all made provisions of what would be needed once back in human form. There was a small shelter built for humans so they could change their clothes. It some time but there was enough clothing to fit all the transformers in human form as well as herself.

Alexis gently grabbed a couple towels and handed one to Optimus. He took it with a nod of his head and then he proceeded to the water. Once he was completely submerged, the power of the water took it's effect and changed him. When he surfaced he was a human with a towel wrapped around his waist.

Alexis didn't bother to look at him before she went into the water and soon came out with a towel completely around her whole torso. When she emerged from the water, Optimus was already dressed in a Dark pair walking shorts and a cream color t-shirt. He turned his head as Alexis walked out of the water, with the water logged towel, weighing her more down.

Once he knew she was in the small shelter changing her clothing, he took his towel and draped it over a clothesline, allowing the towel to dry. It would take days of it to dry as it was soaking wet, but he didn't care. When Alexis emerged from the shelter, wearing a pair of navy blue walking shorts and white t-shirt, she quickly hung her towel in much the same manner as Optimus did with his.

She looked at Optimus, before quickly running into his arms. The action slightly surprised him, but he wrapped his arms around. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing," she breathed in his shirt. "It's nice to feel human arms around me. Not that I don't like Starscream's arms around me. But…"

"You miss human contact," he softly smiled. "Come on. Let's get going. Sideswipe has offered to drive us to town and then he'll pick us up when we're ready."

Alexis nodded and moved out of the embrace. The two headed back to the main area of the base where Sideswipe waited patiently. "You two ready?" he asked.

Optimus nodded and watched as Sideswipe quickly transformed. Optimus climbed into the driver's side while Alexis got in the passenger. Once the two were secured, Sideswipe pulled into gear and head out of the base and down the mountain to the edge of town. Once there, he let his passengers out and then quickly drove off before he was spotted. He didn't even say bye to the two.

Optimus looked around the streets to see the odd person walking about. There was more traffic than pedestrians where it was first thing in the morning; he figured people were heading out for their workday. He looked down at Alexis.

"So where shall we go?"

"Optimus, would you mind if we went by the school I once went to?"

"Where ever you like," he answered. "I'm here for you to show me around town. We go where you want to go. I wouldn't have a clue where to start."

Alexis nodded and the two soon headed towards the school she last attended to three years ago. When they arrived, after walking several blocks, Alexis felt her body fill up with emotions. It was the first time she set foot near the property since her life had changed.

Optimus sensed her sadness. He wrapped a comfort arm around her shoulders. Optimus looked up to see how close the school was to the mountain. "I never realized how close you kids actually were to the mountain. But with the streets, it's hard to get to the base."

Alexis took a deep breath before turning away from the school. "Optimus, perhaps this is a bad idea."

Optimus followed with Alexis as she walked away from the school. "Why is it not a good idea? You're just showing me around."

"I know but where I go, I'm going to feel really sad."

"Then we won't go to places that will remind of things too much. Let's do things you hardly ever got to do before. Like go and have lunch and perhaps even visit that zoo. I've always been curious as to what is in the zoo."

Alexis giggled as she rubbed her eyes. "The Zoo would be nice. I haven't been there since before you guys arrived."

-

It took no time at all for the two to make it to the zoo once they were able to flag down a taxi. It was a good thing Alexis acquired some sort of job, though she did it at the base. She was able to open a back account and have her pay deposited into there. Once she had that established she was able to cover needs for herself and the Autobots when they would be humans.

The two walked through the main entrance and Alexis paid the way for the two of them. As she was waiting in line Optimus scoped the place, reading all the material that was posted on the walls. Before long Alexis was standing beside him with a map of the zoo.

"So which way would you like to go?" she asked as she showed him the map.

Optimus studied the map for a few moments before making his decision. "Why not go this way." He pointed on the map and drew, with his finger an invisible line. "And head towards here."

Optimus looked up from the map and began to walk forward to their first destination. Their first destination was seeing a few black bears. Once they watched the bears long enough they began the rest of their tour. The two spent a few hours looking at all the animals and reading all the signs that were around. Optimus made a mental note to remember the names later and search up their full history. Part way through, the two became hungry and they found there was an outdoor canteen, which sold some supplements of food and drink.

Once they had their fill of food, they continued on. At one point, they came across a little shelter which house glassed in spiders. Alexis was a little sceptical, but ventured in anyway. She wanted Optimus see everything. Once inside, they were the only two in there.

"Alexis is something wrong?" he asked.

"No. Nothing wrong," she answered a little too rushed. "It's just I've never been one for spiders."

"If you didn't want to go in here, we didn't have to," he said with slight frown of concern.

Alexis turned to her commander. "Optimus, I may not like spiders but that doesn't mean you will. I'm here to show you around town and seeing the zoo for the first time, I want you to see everything."

She turned to walk forward when she came across a spider crawling up the window. She quickly jumped in fright with a squeal. Her arm immediately wrapped around his free arm.

Optimus softly chuckled. "I suppose that one just startled you."

"If Carlos was here, he would be having a fit of laughs right now," she grumbled.

"Well he's not here," he stated calmly. "It's just you and me. Why don't we hurry up and get out in the open again."

"Good idea."

Before long the two made it outside and Alexis quickly took a deep breath of fresh air, relishing in the feeling. She walked over to a fence, which had some Zebras grazing around the grass. She leaned against the wooden fence. Optimus came up behind her and wrapped a comforting arm around her.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

Alexis turned and wrapped her arms around him. "I hate spiders," she mumbled in his shirt. "I have ever since I was nine years old when I had a sleep over and one of my friends placed a rubber spider in my bed just before bed. Since then I've never liked them. I never even told this to Rad or Carlos."

Optimus wrapped his arms around her and lightly kissed the top of her head. "Why didn't you just tell me?"

"I didn't want you to miss the exhibit. It's part of the zoo for a reason. Being in there wouldn't have affected me so much if that one wasn't climbing the wall."

"Come on, let's get going. There are still other animals to see."

Alexis pulled away and nodded. "Yeah. There's still one part you got to see where we can feed some deer. They can be funny."

Optimus smiled. "Lead the way."

Alexis smiled back and began walking towards the pathway that would lead them towards more animals. Optimus got to see caged in lions, tigers. He even was able to see much variety of birds including owls and a Bald Eagle and of course different monkeys, including apes. Optimus was particularly interested in the Bald Eagle.

Before long they came across the last exhibit of animals which was the deer, where they able to pet and feed them. Optimus watched in interest as Alexis showed him how to feed the animals and before long three of them were trying to pick the food out her hands while a few others were trying to get their noses up the food dispenser. Even Optimus joined in on the fun of feeding the animals.

Once he noticed Alexis was beginning to tire, he convinced her it was time to leave. Before long the two made it back up to the main area where the entrance was. Alexis knew Optimus enjoyed his time and even the great Autobot leader had new appreciation for the wild animals and why they were kept in captivity.

Seeing that there was a public bus stop practically in front of the zoo, the two began to make their way towards the stop. Optimus felt Alexis tense up as they made towards the end of the parking lot and he soon got his answer.

"Alexis? Is that you?"

Alexis groaned before putting on a fake smile. "Hello … father."

"My goodness you've grown," he said.

Optimus exchanged glances between his adopted daughter and the man she just called father. He was a little confused until he was able to take note Alexis had similar features like the man before him. The man had a small boy clinging to his hand.

"What brings you here?" Alexis asked.

"I'm here to show my son the animals," he said.

"Your son?" Alexis repeated slowly. She looked at the boy. Her fake smile disappeared.

"Yes, my son, your brother."

"Excuse me are you telling me," Optimus decided to intervene. "That you have fathered another child and you never once bothered to wonder how your eldest child was doing."

The man glared at Optimus. "Excuse me but that has nothing to do with you. Who ever you are."

"I am O…"

Alexis scowled. "He is the one that has given me the time of day since the last day you were in my life, trying to force me to move out with you. And then finally move back here and you never once tried to look me up," she seethed. "You have no clue what I have done or even achieved or even if achieved anything at all. And finally I see you after three years only to see you have given your time and day to another child."

Alexis abruptly turned and walked away.

"Alexis," Optimus called but she kept on going back towards the Zoo compound. The Autobot leader soon jogged up to Alexis, forcing her to stop.

"Alexis?" He saw that her head was casted down. He gently lifted her head to see tears forming and making trails down her cheeks. "I'm sorry," he whispered before pulling her towards him in a tight embrace. He could see Alexis' father standing in the parking lot stunned on what had just transpired and the little boy was pulling on his arm.

Optimus finally turned away. He moved himself away from Alexis but kept an arm around her and began walking in a different direction towards the street. "I'll call Sideswipe to come and pick us up."

Alexis nodded, allowing her commander to escort her towards the street. Once they were at the street, they walked over to the nearest bench and Optimus contacted the base. It didn't take too long for Sideswipe to meet up with them. The drive away from the Zoo was a quiet one. After awhile, Optimus got Sideswipe to pull into a parking lot of a park.

Doing as asked, Sideswipe pulled into the lot, obeying the traffic signals. Once he stopped, he offered to stick around, as he knew something was wrong. Optimus agreed before getting out. Alexis followed suit and walked over to a grassy spot. Optimus stayed near his solider.

"Optimus, sir," Sideswipe started. "Is something wrong with my sis?"

Optimus kept a watchful eye on his daughter as she sat alone. "You could probably say something is wrong. Alexis and I just came across her father. And the reunion was not one would expect from a parent."

"I'm not sure I understand."

"Alexis has a little brother. A brother she had no idea. And taking in how old the boy is and to how long Alexis has been Autobot, you can quickly assume he was born around the time Alexis was infected by the Mars rock and Kiaudica's spark."

Sideswipe thought for a moment, wishing he could go to his sister and give her comfort. But he could not risk in being caught as a huge transformer. "Are you telling me her father has not tried to contact her because he had another child?"

"It would appear so. The child looks to be about 3 years of age. Alexis has been an Autobot for that same length of time."

"Wait a minute wasn't Alexis' father was to get remarried to another woman when Alexis was infected?"

"Yes, that was to happen. Does make me wonder about that in why the mother of the child wasn't around. Don't recall seeing a ring, but yet was too shocked to really take note of one."

Optimus looked away, taking in the view of the park. A little away from where Alexis sat, notably crying, he saw small children playing on what had to be playground equipment. Many parents and grandparents were either sitting in another grassy spot watching or joining in their child's activities. It made him think to when Alexis and the boys were that small, playing on equipment like that. He soon noticed Alexis getting up and walked towards him.

When she was in front of him, after rubbing her eyes from her recent tears. "Optimus, is there somewhere else you'd like to go?"

"Just spending time with you," he answered. "Why don't we go back to the base and warp somewhere where the two of us can be alone and we won't be disturbed."

"I like that idea." Alexis tried to smile. She walked over to passenger side and go in. She was a little disappointed that she wasn't going to see Sandy but she was too much in a depressed mood to really listen to her teenage friend ramble on about boys or even about what her plans were for the summer.

-

After getting to the base, Optimus came up with the idea of going skiing. Where it was summer, Alexis wasn't sure how they go out but when he told her to get geared up in winter clothing she finally figured it out. The two had warped to the snowy mountains. The two hiked for a bit in the winter cold with ski gear until they came across a small hill.

Alexis got excited in seeing the hill. And with them bringing two Mini-Cons, Sureshock and Sparkplug, they would have no problems in getting back up the hill to go down it again. Alexis had to show Optimus how to ski and it took him several attempts to make it down the hill without wiping out at some form or another. But when he finally got the hang of it, he was skiing down flawlessly.

It was the exact thing Alexis needed to get her mind clear of her estranged father and through the few hours of the two out there, that was exactly what she did. She totally forgot about her father and his disturbing news. Before long Alexis began to tire of the activity. Plus also she was beginning to get cold.

Agreeing it was enough, Optimus stopped. "That was fun."

"I know. Is there anyway to activate the warp gate from here?"

Optimus nodded. "Yes." After taking of his skis, he pulled out the transmitter that would activate the gate. He waited until Alexis had her skis off before activating it. Alexis shivered as she felt the pull bring her into the gate room.

To their surprise, Starscream was waiting for them. "I take it that your trip was exhilarating?" He knelt his hand down for both humans. "Optimus I know you don't seem comfortable with this part. But it will help you to get back to your quarters so you could warm up, faster."

"I agree," the commander agreed. He hoped into his warrior's hand and allowed the warrior to walk him to his quarters. Once there, the mech lowered him to the floor and headed towards his own quarters.

Once he was in the safety of his quarters, he gently set Alexis down on the floor so she could get out of her wet clothing and into dry ones. He sat down onto the floor and watched as she stripped out of her clothing and into some warmer ones, at least until the chill was gone.

He couldn't help himself as he stared at her as she changed. It was something he loved doing when he remained a mech and she be a human. When she was dressed, she moved over to him and crawled up on his body. She continued her climb until she made her way to his face.

A few times when she was human, he tried to help her to her destination, but she declined. She wanted to climb him, herself. She knew if she were to slip, he would catch her if it was needed. When she reached his face, she quickly kissed his lower lip before moving away and rested against his shoulder.

"Today was good, other than running into father and learning I have a new brother. Can you believe it!" she began ranting. "I have a brother. Father never had the decency to tell me not only was he getting remarried but also he was going to be a father again. No wonder he didn't want anything to do with me. He had a new baby to love better. It's not fair." She slammed her fist against his armor.

Where at the moment, her fist hitting him only felt like grains of sand hitting him. "You have us and that is what matters."

"But that's not the point," she argued. "He never once had the gull to try and find me to tell me that I had a baby brother."

"Alexandra," he stated in a calm but authoritive voice. Once he knew he had her attention, he continued. "I love you. And so does Optimus. Even your mother loves you. Those are what matter most."

Alexis took a deep breath. "I know," she said quietly. "Even Kiaudica said the same thing."

"Perhaps you should listen to her," he said soothingly. "Come." He stood being careful Alexis wouldn't fall. He walked out of their quarters and towards the exit, leading out of the base but onto the mountain. Once there, he took Alexis and set her on the ground.

Alexis remained quiet, though she really wanted to question in what he was doing. She soon found her answer. When he transformed and opened his hatch. "Get in."

"You serious?" she grinned. She didn't wait for him to answer before quickly climbed into the cockpit. Once she was secured, he closed the hatch and soon was in the air. This was the first time for Alexis to take to the air within Stascream.

Never in her years did she ever think of what it would be like to fly a jet. Yeah she was not the one flying the jet, the jet was flying itself, but just being in the air she got to see what jet pilots got to see. It was thrilling. Seeing the clouds fly on by like they were just puffs of smoke or even see how small the world was at that altitude. It was amazing.

Starscream even did some of his manoeuvres that he would do if he was under fire. Alexis felt a little dizzy but she knew Starscream would not hurt her. And flying around with the jet upside down was really thrilling. All she had to was act like she was looking up and she would see the world below.

-

The next morning, after Alexis woke and was back to her old transform self again, she walked to the command center to do some digging. She wanted to know everything that was going on with her father. She knew he was living in town but she never tried to see where he was living. When she began her search, she felt another presence in the room and figured it was Jetfire. She wasn't far into her search when she picked up a transmission. Thinking it was one of the kids she answered.

"Alexis here."

"Alexis? Your voice sounds slightly different."

"Father?" Alexis jerked back. "How did you get this number?"

"I have my ways. Listen about yesterday, you didn't give much time to explain."

Jetfire came up behind Alexis and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, letting her know he was there for comfort if she needed it.

"What more is there to explain?" she asked with anger. "I mean you left me high and dry for three years."

"That was not my intention, believe me. But when I learnt Alice was pregnant, things went nuts. We didn't even get married. And now she's pregnant again. But we're going to get married this time."

"Pregnant again?"

"That's why I was taking Freddie to the Zoo yesterday. Alice had a doctor's appointment and I wanted to help Freddie keep his mind of what his Mommy was doing."

"Please forgive me if I don't sound overjoyed," she replied with sarcasm.

"I understand you're angry with me, but I did call to explain myself. Alexis we're getting married in six months and I would like you to be there. Alice would really love to meet you. Please."

"Why would I want to go? You never bothered tried contacting me since you left that last time. You don't even know how mother is doing."

"No, and I'm sorry about that. I should have kept in touch. But with my job and Freddie, things got somewhat out of hand. And I didn't tried to contact you until now because I didn't know if you were even in town still. I had heard your mother hand moved."

"Yes, she did move. So you want me to go to this wedding?"

"It would make me proud to have all my kids present at my wedding."

Alexis looked at Jetfire before turning to see Starscream and Optimus standing near the doorway, obviously listening in to the conversation. As she looked at Starscream, she noticed he had somewhat of a questionable look on what is a wedding. An idea suddenly came to mind.

"All right, I'll go," she finally answered. "But on one condition. I can bring two guests."

"Two guests? Well your invite already would include plus one. I can't see the harm in having another. I'll let Alice know to put two other placements down for request. Thank you, Alexis. I better get going. I'm currently on my way to work."

Alexis didn't even give him time to say bye she ended the transmission before he could. She turned completely around to face her lover and adopted father. "Well I guess I'm going to a wedding and you're coming with me Starscream."

"I am?" he asked. "What is a wedding anyway?"

Optimus chuckled. "It's a ceremony where two people speak of vows in front of people and sign a piece of paper, making it legal. Afterwards in most cases, there is a party afterwards where the guests share some laughs and just overall have a good time."

"Did you want to go as well Optimus?"

Optimus looked at Alexis. "I will not be here when the wedding comes. I will be back on Cybertron. I have to help supervise the rest of the reconstruction. I'm sure one of the other Autobots would love to see a human wedding though."

"Yeah, I suppose," she agreed.

"What were you doing in here?" Jetfire asked. "I did order for you to take some time off."

"I wasn't in here trying to do my work," she defended. "I was in here seeing if I can find anything on my father. But I guess I don't have to now. And I learn he's having another child. I wonder what his reaction would be if he were to ever find out what his daughter has become. That his daughter is actually no longer human."

"Let's hope it doesn't come down to that," Optimus said. "I don't even want to think about what his reaction would be if he was to learn about us. Your mother was one thing as it was important for her to know what was happening to you."

"Don't forget," Jetfire jumped in. "Sandy knows as well. Though I haven't seen or heard from her in awhile."

"I'm sure," Alexis stated. "She'll come by when she has the time."

Alexis crossed her arms looked at the monitor that was monitoring the town. Somewhere her father was living and she was determined to find out where. She didn't try too hard before because she wasn't sure she really wanted to know. She still didn't want to know but she had to know what her new brother was like and she had to find out what this Alice woman was about too. Alice had replaced her mother and if Alexis was still seeing her father, she would have the displeasure of going to have to call Alice 'step-mom'. Of course there was no way she was going to resort to calling the woman step-mom. She had a mother and she considered Optimus as her father. She didn't know Elita-One that well but she was sure she could learn to like and perhaps even consider the female mech warrior like family as well.


	4. Family Fun

**Family Fun**

The day had come for Optimus Prime to leave back for Cybertron, Alexis felt really sad that he was departing. She hated the idea of him leaving. She didn't want him to leave. But she knew in order to keep the peace between the Decepticons and Autobots, Optimus had to return to Cybertron. He really was not supposed to leave, but he had help from Ultra Magnus, Elita-One and a few others to help cover for him. Of course Shockwave knew the Autobot leader was going to Earth, but he was keeping it quiet between his men.

In the gate room, Alexis was standing beside Starscream, as they were the last to say their good byes to Optimus. Optimus had just placed his destination to Cybertron into the computer. At any time a button could be pushed to activate the warp gate.

Optimus walked back over to Alexis and pulled her into a deep embrace, being mindful of her folded wings. "Do not worry," he said. "I will return once the reconstruction of Cybertron is completed."

"I miss you already," she whispered quietly.

Optimus chuckled as looked at her. "I love you, daughter." He quickly removed his faceplate and lightly kissed her soft forehead before moving away.

Starscream gapped at Optimus when the leader revealed his face for the first time. The seeker knew the leader could remove his faceplate but it usually was only heard of him doing it in the privacy of his quarters and never in front of his men unless it was to Jetfire.

"Optimus, sir!" Sideswipe quickly came running into the gate room.

Optimus turned towards the doorway to see a near out of breath Autobot. "What is it?"

"A subspace message just came from Cybertron it was from Ultra Magnus. The message was sent with a top priority importance."

Starscream and Alexis turned to the Autobot with question. When Sideswipe had everyone's attention, he continued. "The message stated Shockwave saw mysterious figures leaving from one of Cybertron's other Moons heading off in the direction of Earth."

"Here?" Alexis asked. "What could be coming here?"

"Thrust," Starscream growled.

"Thrust?" Alexis looked at her mate. "Why would he come here?"

"Good question," Optimus said as he stepped up behind her. "But where it's uncertain on who is coming, we can not make assumptions. We only can make provisions of a possible invasion. Sideswipe, go the command center and send a subspace immediate linkup to Cybertron and then patch it to here."

Sideswipe nodded before running out of the room to do as ordered. Optimus walked back over to the computer to abort his travel to Cybertron.

Alexis saw this and she walked over to him. "Optimus?"

The grand leader turned to his daughter. "Whatever is on their way here, I have a bad feeling it isn't good. The only alien races who know of Earth is us and the Transformers are the only races we know of who can have technology to space travel, that I know of."

"So what do you plan to do?" Starscream asked.

"Once Sideswipe makes contact to Cybertron and I speak with Ultra Magnus, I'm going to go to the Moon base and inform Cyclonus and Demolisher. They need to be on the look out for whatever comes this way. That is their job."

"I hope Thrust doesn't come," Alexis said. "He betrayed Megatron to Unicron in the first place. If he didn't betray Megatron, then Unicron would not have came here."

"Yes but then Unicron and Megatron would both still be alive right now and we would not know about Unicron."

"I'm not so sure Starscream," Optimus answered. "I'm sure we would have known of Unicron by now. He was one of Cybertron's Moon's, which means he's been spying on us and waiting for the right moment to wipe us out. Who knows what would have happened if Thrust didn't betray Megatron."

"Why would Thrust return if it is him?" Alexis asked.

"I don't know," Optimus sighed. "All I know is he left the solar system in a hurry. He was displeased with the treaty."

Optimus suddenly looked up and saw that Sideswipe had done his job and before him on the screen, was Ultra Magnus.

"What is it old friend?" the Autobot asked. "It's not often you use this channel."

"No," Optimus agreed. "We have just received your subspace message. I would like to know exactly what has gone on since I left."

"Three days ago, Shockwave had seen 3 tiny figures leaving the fourth Moon. If you remember correctly, that's the Moon that has been uninhabited for many centuries," Ultra Magnus began explaining. "It took Shockwave a day to find me as I was deep within Cybertron and I have the only subspace frequency to Earth. Skywarp and Thundercracker were sent out to check the Moon and found an abandoned base and quite the coded message. We're still trying to decode it."

"Perhaps you could send us the coded message. Sideswipe is quite good with cracking codes. Not to mention Alexis has a good hand in it."

"Perhaps. I will see what Shockwave says. He has the message. Optimus, I don't like it. Whoever was on that Moon left for Earth. And if they attack Earth, the humans would be endanger."

"I know," Optimus sighed in frustration. "Inform Shockwave I will not be returning quite just yet. I'm going to see Demolisher and Cyclonus to inform them of this new development and to see if they have seen anything."

"I'll pass the message." Ultra Magnus slightly smirked. "I was hoping my message would get to you before you left, as I knew you would delay your trip back."

"You know me quite well. Optimus Prime out."

The screen went blank and Optimus turned to Starscream. "Set the coordinates for the Moon Base. I'm heading there now before anymore time is wasted."

Starscream nodded. He slightly moved, so Optimus could go over to check point where the gate would transport him to the Moon. Alexis stayed out of the way as she watched her mate plug in the coordinates before activating the warp gate. Within moments, Optimus was gone and the two couple were left in the room.

"I hope Thrust isn't coming," Alexis said more to herself.

Starscream pulled her close and against him. "I hope not too, but we'll handle it. We've defeated Unicron. What possibly could Thrust do?"

-

Optimus arrived in the gate room of the Moon base. He quickly made his way to where Cyclonus was usually stationed. It took him several minutes but he eventually made his way through the maze of damaged bulkheads and soon found Cyclonus in the old throne room.

"Cyclonus," Optimus stated in a command voice. "Report."

The copter Decepticon quickly jerked at attention before realizing who gave the command. He swiftly turned to the Autobot leader.

"Optimus Prime," he said with surprise. "I'm shocked to see you. Starscream did tell me that you were back on Earth, but I wasn't expecting to see you."

"Sorry," Optimus stated. "But this isn't social call."

"Oh." Cyclonus stood to his normal proud height. "So far everything is quiet."

"Good," Optimus breathed in relief.

"If I may be bold but is something wrong?"

"There could be." Optimus walked over to the Decepticon. "Can you please get Demolisher and Wheeljack. It would be best for me to inform you three at once."

Cyclonus nodded and transformed. Optimus watched him fly off towards wherever his other two comrades were. While the Decepticon was gone, Optimus decided to take a look around the room. He saw Megatron's typical throne chair. But instead of sitting upright, it was nearly blasted to bits. He assumed someone, probably Starscream, blasted it.

Turning his attention away from the damaged throne, he focused his sights on what Megatron used to look at while sitting in the throne. At the angle the Moon was in, Optimus could see a part of the Earth. He began to wonder if the Moon would able to get in a position where Megatron could have gotten a full good look at the Moon.

"Optimus sir?"

Optimus turned to see Wheeljack and the two Decepticons. Turning completely away from looking at the Earth, he put his full attention on his three warriors.

"I will need for you three to really keep on the look out," he stated. "I was just sent a subspace message just before I was about to head back to Cybertron. Shockwave witnessed three small figures leaving the Fourth Moon."

"Any idea who left?" Wheeljack asked.

"Unknown. Starscream has his suspicions that it's Thrust."

"It would be a good idea to be weary of him. Thrust did leave right after other Decepticons and Autobots left for Cybertron."

"Yes," Optimus agreed. "Thrust did not approve of the treaty."

"I don't trust Thrust," Cyclonus said. "He's very manipulative. He tricked Starscream into having the Star Saber Sword when Megatron went after the Requim Blaster. Thrust then closed the gate on Starscream and Starscream had to return to the base on his own."

"Yes Starscream had told me that."

"Don't forget," Demolisher said. "He even betrayed Megatron to Unicron but then was betrayed himself."

Cyclonus laughed. "That was quite interesting. Megatron was ready to kill Thrust."

"Optimus," Wheeljack stepped forward. "Would you like me to return to Earth?"

"No," he said. "For the next few days we're going to stay alert. Besides Starscream and Sideways, you three are the best knowledge in the Moon base. Starscream won't leave Alexis alone and I know you two," Optimus pointed to the two Decepticons, "won't allow Sideways on the Moon as you don't trust him."

"Sideways duped us," Cyclonus growled, laughter gone. "I don't care he was brainwashed by Unicron. He still used us."

"Cyclonus, he tricked the Autobots too," Optimus said in a calm voice. "And he's still fighting with Beachcomber's memories and his as being a spy for Unicron. I will be staying here on the Moon for a couple days to help monitor."

The three Transformers nodded and soon left to do their jobs. Optimus followed Wheeljack. He didn't fully trust either Decepticon. Wheeljack swiftly followed into line of showing Optimus how everything worked so the Autobot leader knew what to do.

-

After Optimus left, Alexis felt lonely. She was still on her vacation and she was beginning to miss her human friends terribly. With the four boys working and not even sure what Sandy was doing, it made her feel that much more lonely. Not to mention with the reappearance of her father and learning she had a little half-brother, didn't help matters much either. Her thoughts were interrupted when Hotshot and Sideswipe came into the gate room but they were human.

Starscream moved away from his mate, as he was hugging her close while she was deep in thought. "What brings you two in here?" he asked a little too gruffly, looking down.

"Well we know Alexis is a little bummed out from Optimus leaving and now Thrust being on the possible threat of returning…" Sideswipe started.

"We thought we could take Alexis to that old race track to help ease her mind on some things. This is her last day of vacation," Hotshot finished.

"So we're going to have a car race to see which Autobot is faster," Blaster said as he came in the room with Hoist on his heals. Blaster looked at Alexis and smiled at her. "What's up squirt?"

Though the young woman was as tall as Blaster but the stereod Autobot adopted in calling her squirt more for the fact that she was once human.

"Does Jetfire know about this?" Alexis asked, slightly taking her vice commanding back. "And why human?"

Hotshot nodded. "Alexis there's enough Autobots here at the base to keep their eyes pealed for any strange activity. Not to mention Optimus went to the Moon base, so he's helping with patrolling up there."

"It was actually Red Alert's idea," Sideswipe said. "He suggested that we should test our speeds."

Hotshot smiled. "Besides Sideswipe and I would love to have a race with human cars. We've been building our version of a car and we'd like to try them out. See which one is faster. So are you in?"

Alexis looked at Starscream before looking at her brothers. It had been a long while she actually spent any time with them and she saw them even less when Optimus was around.

"Sure why not," she said with a small smile. Perhaps watching her brothers have a small race could probably help her troubled mind.

The small gang got ready while Hoist walked over to the computer console and plugged in the coordinates. When he knew everyone was ready; Starscream, Blaster, Alexis, Hotshot and Sideswipe, he activated the gate and they were soon gone, leaving him in the room.

Alexis felt the power of gate suck her into the image of the abandoned racetrack. When she fully rematerialized at the track, she noticed everyone soon separated off. Hotshot and Sideswipe ran over to a set of bleachers and came out from behind them, driving their cars towards the starting line. The lines on the track were quite faded, but it was still extinguished with faded paint marks going up the starter polls. Of course the disabled stoplights also gave good indication that it was the starter line.

As they headed off into position, the on lookers moved towards the broken down bleachers. Once Alexis, Starscream and Blaster were off to the side, Hotshot shouted out a count down. When he finally counted down and yelled 'go' the two cars were off.

Through the communicators that were integrated into the other Autobots on the same frequency, the three Transformer onlookers were able to hear what the two racing Autobots were talking about.

"We'll do three laps and see how it goes from there," Hotshot said.

"You got it bro," Sideswipe answered.

For the first lap and a half, the two Autobots were going nearly neck and neck but once they had reached the ¾ quarter marker, Sideswipe decided it was high time to take the race up a notch. He kicked into a gear a new gear that no normal car could do. It must have been a new upgrade Sideswipe installed. Unknown to either Autobot they had a third racer. But the third racer was taking his time and staying far enough behind to not be noticed other than the on lookers.

When he showed up at the track, the race had already began and Alexis was quite shocked to see him arrived. When he got past the starting line to start his end of the race the other two Autobots were already a half a lap ahead of him. But the new comer kept his speed at being a half a lap behind. When he noticed Sideswipe began to speak up and Hotshot had to match, he knew it was time to kick it into a higher gear.

He kept listening to his to his comrades over the communicator but not once did he say anything. He wanted to keep his arrival a surprise. He was quite surprised no one said anything but he was grateful. He was going to give those to adapted brothers a run for their money.

When the third Autobot joined in on the race, Alexis was given a surprise. She felt something was out of place and when she finally looked down, she was able to pin point what was out of place. Right near her feet, was Sandy. No words passed between the former human or her best friend. Alexis bent down, allowing the girl to climb in her hand. Once the young woman was in Alexis' hand, the girl hugged Alexis' thumb as tight as she could.

In the best gesture as she could, Alexis brought her other hand up and cupped the girl in her hands, giving her a hand hug. Starscream wondered why Alexis had her hands cupped but he soon found out when his mate finally uncapped her hands to reveal the teen.

He smiled at the girl before turning his attention to see the third Autobot join the race. Alexis took Sandy and rested the teen on her shoulder and continued watching. She would leave her questions for when the race was over.

As the race came down to the final half lap, the third Autobot decided to really kick it into gear to catch up to his comrades. He soon was able to see the finish line come into view. He saw Hotshot and Sideswipe were still fairly close to each other. For several minutes, Sideswipe would take the lead and get a whole car link ahead of Hotshot and other times Hotshot would take the lead. The three on lookers were getting excited with anticipation wondering who was going to win.

In the last stretch Hotshot and Sideswipe finally got the shock of their lives. They both felt something coming up behind them, but couldn't place until they heard a voice from the communicator.

"You boys are out of your league!"

"What the?" Sideswipe blurted.

"Blurr?" Hotshot jolted.

There was no answer but the two Autobots quickly got their answer when suddenly a white sports quickly sped directly between the two and continued with each second passing by, the sports car was accelerating.

"See you two at the finish line," Blurr stated over the comlink.

"What the heck are you doing here?" Hotshot snapped but it was too late when Blurr suddenly went passed the finish line, soon following Hotshot and Sideswipe at neck and neck. Blurr stopped with short of a skid and manoeuvred himself sideways, before transforming. When the other two Autobots got over the finish line, they too brought their cars to a skidding halt.

Alexis began to suddenly laugh as she watched Blurr quickly gain speed and soon surpassed her brothers to win the race. Sandy also laughed to.

"That is so awesome," Sandy said through her laughs.

"You can say that again," Alexis laughed. "Poor Hotshot, never even knew Blurr was there."

Hotshot gawked at Blurr. "Where did you come from? You cheated."

"Not really," Blurr said. "I arrived with Sandy just after you guys started your race. I allowed her to get out to find Alexis before I went to the starting line. By the time I started the race you two were already a half a lap a head of me. So I just allowed you two to have your fun until I decided to surpass you."

"Sandy's here?" Sideswipe asked. He turned his attention to his sis and sure enough on Alexis' shoulder was a giggling human.

Hotshot glanced at his sister before glancing back at Blurr. "That's still cheating. Sideswipe and I are humans using human vehicles."

Blurr shrugged and walked towards the bleachers. He watched carefully as Alexis tried to stifle her giggles. He knew she would find it amusing if he showed up and that was his full intentions. He originally wasn't going to join in his fellow team-mates fun but he learnt they were going to invite Alexis he had to go.

It made it even easier when Sandy had arrived at the base. Jetfire seemed to stutter slightly when she showed up, so Blurr invited her to go with him to the racetrack. Sandy was overjoyed. When they arrived, she saw the race had already begun. She felt a little disappointed. Blurr told her not to worry, he was going to beat those turkeys. That brightened her spirits as she climbed out of him and ran towards her friend.

"So what's up?" Sandy said to her friend. "I heard Optimus is back, but I just missed him."

"Yeah," Alexis said with slight sadness. "He was suppose to go back to Cybertron today but there maybe some trouble developing so Optimus went to the Moon instead. Not to mention my dad is back."

"Wait! Hold the phone!" Sandy nearly shouted getting the other Autobots attention. "Did you just say your dad?"

"That's what I said," the former human nodded. "Optimus and I went to the zoo the other day and when we left, dad arrived with a three year old son."

"A son?! I thought you were an only child?"

"Not anymore. You remember three years ago when all this…" Alexis pointed herself," all happened. Dad wanted me to move in with him and his fiancée. The two were going to get married. I declined the offer, as my relationship with Starscream was becoming something more. Apparently my dad didn't get married after all. He had a son instead. He's getting married in six months to the mother of his son."

"Are you telling me, your father dropped out of sight because he had a new kid and he never bothered to see how you were doing?"

"If you ask me," Blurr said. "Mr. MacDonald is not a very nice person. His daughter should remain an important part of his life. Mrs. MacDonald keeps in touch and she even came here to see Alexis on the odd occasion."

"Or Alexis has gone there as a human," Hotshot said. "What father would do that to a child? If I was a human I could never do that to my child."

Blaster looked down at the humanized Hotshot, doing his best to ignore his bright butter yellow blond hair. "Well you're human right now."

Hotshot crossed his arms. "Am I human twenty-four seven?"

Blaster smirked before turning back to the former human and her friend. "Hotshot does bring up one point, why would a father do that?"

Sandy glanced at the stereo transformer. "Who knows what other humans do. There are many children who are neglected by their parents. Some children are abandoned and thrown on the side of the road."

"That's cruel," Sideswipe scowled as he placed his hands on his hips.

"At least I have Optimus," Alexis intervened.

"I agree," Sandy answered. "He's like the father you should have had."

"Optimus is more than a father to Alexis," Starscream added. "Optimus is the father Alexis always needed. To be there when she needs him most."

Sandy turned back to her friend. "What are you going to do about your father's wedding?"

"I told him I'll go, but, I'm taking two guests with me."

Sandy giggled. "I already know who one is."

Starscream bent lower to the young woman on his mate's shoulder. "You got a problem with that?" He knew she was referring to him.

"No. Why would I have a problem? Her love for you brought you to the good side and with your support she was able to help in defeating Unicron." Sandy looked at her friend. "Al, can you set me down. I would like to take a look at the cars Sideswipe and Hotshot built."

Alexis smiled at the adopted nickname Sandy gave her after she became a Transformer. She gently grasped her friend and set her down on the ground so Sandy could ask a few questions to the guys about their custom cars. As she looked the cars over carefully, Alexis thought to what the others had said about her father not being a good parent. She couldn't help but agree. Though she didn't get to see Optimus much in the last three years but the last week for her was very special. Never once did he yell at her for misjudging when she had hurt her friends. And when the two had gone to the zoo, she was able to forget that she was a transformer as was he. It was like the two were normal humans doing what father and children outings should be.

The two even went skiing to help calm her nerves and even that was thrilling. She had never gone skiing with her father before. He never wanted to go. Alexis and her parents, when they were still together, would go on a skiing trip but he would never join in on the fun. It was on Alexis and her mother. Alexis had a feeling that was when the marriage crumpled for her parents. She wondered if her father was cheating on her mother when they would take family trips.

She hated the idea into thinking her father left them because he wanted someone younger and prettier than mom. But it was quite logical as a few years after the break up; he announced he was getting remarried. So was it really her mom left because his father was travelling too much or was it that he had cheated on her mother?

"Alexis?"

Her thoughts were interrupted as her mate called her name.

"Sorry, I was just thinking between Dad and Optimus."

"About what?" he asked, keeping his voice quiet.

Alexis glimpsed around to see Blaster and Blurr quietly chatting while Sandy was still with her humanized transformer friends. "Well Optimus did some things with me that my father never did with me. Yes I've gone to the zoo before with Dad but it was so long ago, I barely remember it and I think it was when my twin was still alive. But when Optimus took me to the ski slopes, never once did Dad come outside with Mom and I to ski with us. He always stayed inside."

"Are you telling me you have gone on skiing trips with her father and mother?"

"When they were still together, yes. But Dad never skied with us. So I'm wondering if Dad lied to my Mom about his reason for leaving us."

"I'm not sure I follow."

"Starscream, there are many couples who will break up because one or both are cheating on the other."

"Cheating?" Starscream knew a lot on human culture but he still wasn't sure on loving couples or how they break up. It still confused him.

Alexis understood where he was coming from. Starscream wasn't much for showing affections in public and even less to really listen to private moments unless the conversations were between him and her. "It's when the man or woman will go behind their partner's back and sleep with someone else."

Starscream suddenly looked appalled at the idea of adultery. "I thought when you take a mate, it's for life?"

"It should be," she agreed. "But many people now a days can fall out of love with the other or only be with that one person for specific reasons. Many couples actually don't recognize true love anymore."

"Humans are so complicated," Starscream finally grumbled in his usual tone. "Well I'm glad you're not like that."

Alexis smiled. "I love you."

Starscream smiled before pulling his mate into a passionate embrace, not caring who was watching. After being around the Autobots for three years, he learnt to not care what they say. Besides the Autobots got used to him kissing Alexis, so they usually just ignored the couple and talk to them after they were done their private moment.


	5. Leadership Isn’t Always Easy

**Leadership Isn't Always Easy**

Though Optimus was not on Cybertron, he wasn't on Earth either but he was close to Earth but it still made Alexis feel lonely. If she wanted to she could fly to where he was as he was on the Moon. But she knew his reasoning for being on the Moon was strictly for business and she couldn't go to see him just because she wanted to. She was no longer human and hadn't been for three years now. Of course she now had a new concern to worry about, three small figures left from Cybertron and their last known coordinates were heading to Earth. Who were these figures?

Hearing about the figures reminded her of Thrust, Megatron and Unicron. She remembered how Unicron left Cybertron and tried to attack Earth. But luckily Megatron had agreed to an alliance, which was protested from Thrust. But of course at the same time Thrust had betrayed Megatron to Unicron, but then Unicron betrayed Thrust. When Unicron was defeated, Thrust was against the treaty Optimus Prime and Shockwave had signed. Thrust had fled from Earth and no one had seen him since that day.

Just thinking about Megatron brought shivers to circuitry. She wasn't sure what she hated more the fact that Megatron mainly sacrificed himself for her and she lied about it or the figures who were on their way to Earth. If Unicron never came into the picture, he probably would still be after her to join the Decepticon ranks.

Her thoughts were interrupted from watching the sunset as she felt a hand touched her shoulder. She jerked her body, letting the intruder know he startled her.

"You must have been in quite the daydream," her commander said.

Alexis turned to see her big friend. The setting sun made his white armor look yellowish. "You startled me," she said.

"I didn't mean to," he answered. "I was wondering if you can do a little job for me."

"What sort of job?" she asked.

"I would like you and Blurr to check the forest to see if we can make some human sized furniture."

"What's wrong with what we have now?" she titled her head slightly.

"Well that was stuff you kids found when we first met you and now that the Autobots are becoming human on the odd occasion, I figured it would be best to build some furniture. I would like you and Blurr to find some wood for us to use."

"What about keeping on guard for whoever is coming this way?" she asked.

"Not all of us have to stay completely alert. There are more than enough of us to stay alert. Besides Optimus was the one relayed the message a short time ago. We have you and Starscream who are seekers and the Ariel bots who also can fly. I'm too bulky as I transform into a shuttle. I need Starscream here to really stay on the look out, as he knows Thrust better than the rest of us."

"I see," she said as she turned towards the setting sun.

Alexis felt tears well up in her optics, but they quickly were vanished when she felt an arm drape as best as possible around her shoulders, because of her wings and a light kiss touching the top of her head. She snapped her body towards her commander and gasped.

For the first time ever, she was now seeing the Vice Commander of the Autobots without a faceplate against his face. She was stunned to see a mouth and nose. He had a soft smile donning his lips as she could finally see that he looked at her with a lovingly family sort of way. She watched as he replaced his faceplate and leaned towards her audio receptors.

"We all love you," he whispered. "And since you're now back to work, I would like to start you out on slow things. You're mind is troubled because of what you've lost and now your father is in the picture."

Tears brimmed her eyes and finally made their way down her soft cheeks. She turned her whole body around and hugged Jetfire as best as she could. "Oh Jetfire," she whispered.

He hugged her back before leaving to continue his job. Right after he left, she went inside as well and searched for Blurr. She finally found the warrior in the training room.

"Hey Blurr," she called.

The said Autobot stopped what he was doing and turned towards his friend. "You missed practice," he stated calmly.

"I know and I apologized for that. My Mom wanted to see me for something. Jetfire just requested us to go and get some wood to make new furniture for when we're human."

"What's wrong with the stuff we have now?" he asked, placing his rifle a way.

"Apparently the orders came from Optimus and he said that there are more Autobots becoming human on occasion and there isn't enough furniture for everyone."

"I suppose that's a good reason. Every time there are more than 5 of us and the boys are around, we have to do a campout. And we usually go to that deserted island. When do you want to head out?"

"Would right now be too much trouble?"

Blurr smirked behind his faceplate. He loved how she would always ask him if he wanted to go somewhere. With the other Autobots, she never asked it was 'let's go' but it was never like that when she spoke with him. "Just give me a few minutes and I'll meet you in the gate room."

Alexis smiled and turned away from her friend and headed towards the gate room. When she got there she was surprised to see Starscream in the room. It took her a moment to remember that he was sent to the Moon this morning and that was why she hadn't seen him all day. Once the doors swished closed she ran to him, nearly startling the heck out of him. He almost lost his footing but he caught himself before he fell.

It took him a few seconds to realize his mate attacked him. The feel of her hands wrapped around his mid section, gently touching the cockpit of his alt mode, distracted him enough to know who just jumped him. He wasn't given a chance to say hi before she found a way to maneuver her body around his so she was facing him head on. Once he was able to see her face, she was immediately kissing him.

When she gave him room to speak, his first words were not his normal ones. "Can't a guy get in the door before being attacked?"

"Not when his mate hadn't seen him all day," she giggled. "And she just wanted hold him before he did anything else."

Starscream smiled. "Optimus sends his love."

Alexis snuggled against him as best as she could. Of course sometimes it wouldn't work as good as others as they both had cockpits over their torsos. "I love you," she whispered.

"So what brings you in here," he answered as he held her close.

Alexis finally broke the embrace. "Jetfire has asked Blurr and I to see about getting some wood to make new human furniture."

"I can see why he would give such a request. There isn't enough for everyone."

"Starscream," Blurr said as he entered the gate room. "Welcome back."

"Thanks," he said in his usual raspy tone. "I better go and speak with Jetfire. Starscream swiftly kissed Alexis' brow. I'll see you later my love."

He smiled at her before walking away, allowing the warriors work on their project.

-

"We are nearing Earth."

"Good. Contact the other ships to cloak and drift into stealth mode. I'm sure Optimus Prime has some men watching from the Moon."

"Yes boss. Flight ship calling Ships two and three."

"Go ahead. This is ship Two."

"This is ship Three."

"We are approaching Earth. The boss wishes to cloak and go to stealth mode."

"Men," the boss said. "You'll notice we have just come to the red planet, the last planet before Earth. Once we past this planet, we will be in sensor range of the Autobots and I'm sure there is a base set up on the old Decepticon base, where Optimus Prime will have a group waiting for us.

"You all know for a fact Shockwave had seen our departure. I do not want Prime to see our approach." The boss clicked a button, turning off communications. "Helmsman. Find us an appropriate place to set up our base."

"Yes, sir. I have been looking since entering the solar system. I think I have found a perfect location. It's in a desert, far away from any civilization. Apparently there's an underground city that once existed upon but it sank. I'm sure they will not expect us there."

"Good. Then that is where we shall go." The boss turned away from his men. "Soon Autobots, you will get what's coming to you. I will get my revenge and end the treaty that was signed between the two factions of the Transformers. There should never have been a treaty."

-

It took three days for Alexis and Blurr to gather up enough wood to make the furniture. Jetfire took note how well she did work as a team. He hated giving her such pitiful jobs but she had to learn her worth once again, from making a mistake before. He knew Alexis knew it was a type of punishment but he kept encouraging her by softly kissing her head when no one was around, allowing her the chance to actually see him in his vulnerable stage. No one, not even Optimus had actually seen him with his faceplate removed so he gave Alexis such high pleasure for the act.

Jetfire even marveled how well she actually placed the teamwork on her and Blurr. She would get Blurr to cut the trees down that would work. Once the three was about to fall, she would the force of its fall by allowing the tree to land on her in her alt mode. Once it was on her, she would jet off towards the base at top speed, keeping a secure lock on the tree.

As soon as the tree was in the safety of the base she would seer off back to the forest where Blurr would be in the middle of cutting another tree. His way of cutting the tree was using his rifle, on low setting. Jetfire was quite pleased by her progress. He was hoping to get her back to normal duty soon. She was still the Vice Commander of the Autobots who were on Earth, until the day came when Optimus would have the leadership switch hands back to himself and Jetfire. But until that time, when Optimus wasn't around, Jetfire was the main commander of the team.

Before long, without being told, Jetfire took note on how quickly she began to take charge of the whole project, but not once over stepping her boundary and she continued to work well in the team while doing this. On the third day, she got Blaster, herself, Blurr, Scavenger and Hoist to become humans and the group began working, still as a team, in building the equipment into furniture. They did all they could with the wood up to the point on exactly what to build. Alexis even got some of the Mini-Cons involved.

To Alexis' surprise Sandy and the Boys arrived at the base. Even Jetfire was surprised as they were eager to help out. So now there was ten people and twenty Mini-Cons working on this project. Jetfire was completely baffled at how much help Alexis was getting. He continued to watch as the other Autobots remained on guard in case whoever was coming to Earth would slip by the defenses of the Moon Base. Unknown to everyone though, they were too late. Unwanted company was already on Earth.

"So where is this human structure?" the boss snapped, very irritated.

"The sensors say," one answered. "It's directly below us."

Where it was dark in the Sahara Desert, any human would not be able to see where the voices were coming from, only silhouettes.

"Well it looks to me like there is no way down below, you idiot!"

"There has to be a way down. There's residue where there was once a Mini-Con signal. But the Mini-Con is gone. There is also an ion trail of the Autobots and Decepticons being here as well."

The boss smirked. "So one of the Mini-Cons came here did it? I wonder how the Autobots and Decepticons got a hold of it."

"T-Boss," another yelled. "I hear something. It's not that far from us."

The boss snapped his attention to the silhouette in the slight distance. "Lead the way!"

The small group ran through the desert to where they could hear a noise. As they got closer, the sound got noisier. They soon stopped and to their surprising eyes, they could see what looked like a whirlpool of sand. They watched for several minutes until the sands stopped. Once the sand settled, it gave the look of a whirlpool in stand still mode.

"Amazing," the boss breathed. "I had no idea Earth had such strange behaviors in its ground. All right men!" he suddenly called out. "We shall dig here and use the ships for reinforcements around the walls. Now let's get to this. We need to be out of sight of the Autobots as soon as possible, including our ships."

"Yes sir," everyone shouted.

Meanwhile on the other side of the planet where it was still much daylight left, ten humans were busy in making furniture for themselves. Five of the humans were humans while the other five were actually Autobots. They were having some fun as they built.

Jetfire was supervising from above, without their knowledge.

"So Sandy," Alexis started as she flipped her hair for the third time. "What type of job do you have this summer?"

"I don't," the teen answered solemnly.

Alexis stopped hammering nails into some wood, which was being formed into a chair. "What's wrong?"

"I don't want to bore you with my troubles," Sandy tried to pull away.

Alexis placed the hammer down before her hands were on her hips and she was giving the teen a death glare. "Sandy your troubles can not be as bad as mine. Remember I'm not human anymore. And just because I look like one right now doesn't mean a damn thing. Now tell me what is wrong."

Sandy sighed. Even after three years of being a giant robot, her friend was still as stubborn as ever. "My grandma was sick in the hospital. And with my Mom and Dad always working so much, they have asked me, actually more like demanded me to sit with her. So I can't work this summer. Now my Grandma passed away and the funeral was yesterday."

"Oh Sandy," Alexis grabbed the girl and hugged her tightly. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know. If I had known…"

Sandy couldn't hold back the tears as she hugged her friend. "I wanted to tell you but my Mom wouldn't allow me. The service was private. Only family."

"Then why are you here?"

"I figured being with my friends, no matter if they are giant or not, would help keep my mind off things. Mom and Dad just quickly buried themselves deeper into their work and since summer is already part way through, I have no time to get a job."

Alexis wasn't sure what to do. She had a friend who was in need but a planet to also pay attention to incase of trouble. Who knows what Shockwave had seen heading towards Earth. Perhaps whatever left didn't come to Earth and she couldn't see Thrust coming back as he hated the planet and there was nothing tying him to the Decepticons anymore, as he was a traitor to them. But she had to command her team first and looking after her friend was not part of the job description.

Alexis continued to hug her friend until the girl's tears were spent. Once she had stopped crying, Sandy pulled away. "I know you have to command your team, but I also know that there was not a possible threat, I'm sure you would have one of these great friends to help cheer me up. That's why I'm here. I wanted to spend some time with some friends not think about what happened."

"I wish I could help you."

"Al, you are helping," the teen slightly gave a grin. "I'm here. You're here. I'm surrounded by those who care about me. And quite frankly it's fun building furniture for the base so when you Autobots are all human, we can all spend the time here and not on that beach."

"That's the spirit."

Sandy turned away to see Hoist standing behind her with Blaster beside him.

Blaster took a step forward. "Why not work a little more than later order some Pizza?"

Sandy beamed. "That sounds like a good plan. How long will you guys be human?"

"First light," Blurr answered as he came up behind Alexis. "Now, let's get back to work. This furniture will not build itself."

Jetfire watched as the group went back to their work. He was quite saddened to learn that his human friend was not having a very good summer. He had to agree with Alexis, if it weren't for this possible new crisis, he would give that young teen a flight of her life. He would offer her a chance to see Earth from a new light. He would take her up in his alt mode to the Moon and she could see the sunrise from space. But he had to be a leader first. He couldn't just drop what he was doing and help cheer his friend up.

Days like this he hated being a leader and being the leader of the Autobots on Earth was not always his cup of tea. He sometimes would rather have Hotshot's or even Sideswipe's job. But he knew that would have meant that he would have to take orders from someone higher up than him. And he worked a very long time to get to where he was now.

-

It took a week, but soon enough there was now a tunnel built in the sand and once hitting solid ground the group was now able to see the entrance to the sunken city. Well actually it was not a city but a building. But from the looks of things, it was large enough to fit a city of people in it. Once the whole group was down below and the ships were all taken care of, the leader now needed to scope out the place.

To be sure the Autobots would not discover them, they built a hatchway over the entrance the winds of the sand would cover the hatchway so it would not look as if the ground had ever been touched. Now the only that was left on ships were the computer consoles, which would be installed into their new base of operations. The leader knew it would take some time to get the computers operational but he was confident that it would work.

The leader grabbed one of his men and shoved him towards the entrance of the city. "Scope the city!"

"You got it T~Boss!" The man who was shoved proceeded inside the structure.

"Why send him?"

"Because he's an annoying pain. I'm beginning to wonder why I recruited him."

Before long the group heard screams and gunfire happening within the structure but they there was silence. They waited several more minutes longer before the leader decided he was going to send another in. But he before he could give his order the one, who was sent in, came out with a big smirk.

"There were giant robot spiders, but they are have been wasted. I did come across a room that has no floor I would say this structure was booby-trapped to protect the Mini-Con. As the Mini-Con signet is throughout the structure."

"I would say someone must have worshipped the Mini-Con when it was still in its dormant sleep."

The leader turned to the warrior was a woman. "You don't say?!" he nearly snapped. "I know more about the secrets of Earth than any of you idiots. So stop all this nonsense gibberish. We are here on a mission." He turned to two other warriors. "I want you to start a few road blocks."

"Road blocks?"

The woman turned to the warrior, punching him in the face. "He means he wants you to cause a little mischief for the humans. Nothing to severe, but enough to cause question."

"But sir," he protested. "Wouldn't it be better if they didn't know we were here?"

"Oh trust me," the leader smiled evilly. "The Autobots will not know what hit them. They will not expect us, even if a little mischief is caused, they will not know how severe I mean until it's too late. I have much plans for the Autobots."

The leader laughed evilly. "Optimus Prime, you number is now up!"

-

With most of the furniture now built, Alexis snuck into the warp gate and activated it. Within moments stood Optimus' girlfriend, Elita One. She hated the idea of doing this but she had to seek counsel from the Autobot femme leader. And she couldn't wait any longer.

"I'm sorry to contact you so late," Alexis said when Elita had her bearings.

The female mech warrior lightly grinned. "It's all right my dear. Your message did sound a little urgent. And I know it has nothing to deal with this possible invasion."

Alexis shock her head. "No. I would like some personal advice from one female mech warrior to another."

Elita walked over to the former human and wrapped her arm around her shoulders. "What would you like to talk about?"

"Well as you well know, I am the Vice Commander here on Earth and sometimes it's very tough and a couple months ago, I hurt a couple friends and I really didn't mean to."

"I heard about that," the femme answered. "Optimus told me that you were having some trouble when he came here."

"Well I'm not sure what I should do anymore." Alexis turned away from the pink warrior. "I hurt my friends, Jetfire hasn't placed me back on full active duty yet since then and now my friend is in need of emotional support and I don't know how to give it to her because I have to lead first."

"Have you spoken to Jetfire about this?"

"He knows I'm struggling and he tries to give me encouragement but it's still quite hard. How do you do it?"

"Being the Autobot Femme Commander, can be very difficult, especially when I'm completely separated from my life mate. You are not."

"You know about that?" Alexis blushed.

"It's not that hard to tell," Elita said, giving her best measure of a wink by dimming one optic. "Starscream loves you and he tries his best to give you what you need. And the other men, well they can be quite clueless, that I've noticed. But you didn't ask me here to speak about personal mate speeches."

"No," Alexis nearly stuttered. "I feel like I'm being torn in half. I'm half human and half robot. What do I do?"

"You take it one day at a time," she softly smiled. "You are well liked and well treated. As for being leader that comes with experience. Sometimes you'll have some tough choices. And those choices will take you places you hate to be in, like what you're in right now. You want to help your friend, but you know right now you can't. If you want you can go to your room and cry about it and then the next morning move on.

"You should never keep your emotions bottled up. If you do, then sometimes you could make the wrong move. I've had to live many, many years away from Optimus because he wanted Megatron to think I was still dead. I would be lucky to see him one every hundred years. And yes I did a lot of crying when I was alone and although I'm the leader of the femmes, I had to give up my position of being leader, at least by looks I did.

"I had my Second in Command lead for me, but I would give her the orders to carry out. So I was still officially leader but no one else knew I was alive except for Optimus, Jetfire, my Second in Command and most of the officers here on Earth. There were times when Jetfire, would step out of line to allow Optimus and myself to have a few quiet romantic moments to ourselves. But Jetfire did that on his own time and he knew that if he was ever caught doing it, Optimus would have no choice but to court marshal him. But as you can see, that never happened."

"So you have had to make tough decisions in your past?"

Elita nodded. "I had no choice. I had to think of my warriors before myself."

Alexis quickly hugged the mech. "Thank you, Elita One."

The femme leader bent slightly and kissed the former human on the head. "I see now why Optimus refers to you as his daughter."

Alexis looked up. "He spoke to you about that?"

Elita softly smiled again. "Optimus speaks very highly of you. He wishes that he could be with you more often and he has full plans of coming here to Earth and being by your side once Cybertron is completed. And when that day comes, Earth will become my home as well. I will gladly give up my title to be with the Autobot I love and his daughter."

Alexis now was feeling a little better with Elita giving her some friendly, motherly, but yet leadership advice. To Alexis, she felt Elita was like the mother that she needed and as much as she loved her own birth mother who was now living in Maine, she needed to have a mother here at the base. She gave Elita one more hug before moving away and reactivating the warp gate, sending the femme bot back to Cybertron.


	6. Leadership Switches Hands

**6 Leadership Switches Hands**

Deep in the Sahara Desert, far from any naked eye view and hidden well enough underground to not cause alarm, quite just yet, a secret elite force was preparing for their attack. The one who was leading this team made instructions they were going to flush out the Autobots and get their revenge. The Transformers in general had many enemies besides the Autobots and Decepticons at each other's throats for so long. The team leader knew this and he was planning an attack that would surprise the Autobots to no end. He was going to make it look like it was another enemy to the Transformers and they would be completely surprised when they would learn who the real threat was.

The leader of the elite force was standing just out of the old structure starring at the tunnel that would lead them out. He had noticed every few hours the sands would shift. He presumed it was that whirlpool of sand moving that would cause the sands to shift. He did well in ordering his men to place reinforcements around the tunnel that lead to the surface. "So what is the plan T-boss?" someone came up.

The one known as 'T-boss' turned to his man. "You remember the Transformers has other enemies. Well we are going to attack this planet, making Optimus Prime think it's them who is attacking, when in reality it's not."

"Are you wanting to start that feud back up against the Transformers? No one has battled the Transformers besides the Autobots and Decepticons for over a million years."

"Exactly," the boss said. "And I think it's high time to resettle the score by bringing that battle back, or at least try. The Autobots and Decepticons are now working side by side, meaning Cybertron is no longer in a battle for domination, which means if there is any enemies out there who have been conquering planets, they no longer can't. And what better way than to make Planet Earth full of disgusting humans as the target."

"You are clever boss," the man smiled. "I would have never thought of doing that."

The boss glared at his man and with a strong but deadly calm voice, he said. "Why do you think you are not even on the senior command list, you fool?" The leader of the elite force turned and walked away from his idiot of a warrior. Sometimes he wished he never recruited him in the first place, he was too soft.

He walked into the structure and straight to the command center where his number two man was waiting for him. "Deploy a scouting crew to cause some minor damages. Not to much and no harming the humans unless they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. I just want to send some warning shots. The fun stuff will come later."

"Yes sir," the man said. He quickly assembled the scouting crew. "Our leader," the man said. "Wants you to create some small damages but none too severe and no humans are to be harmed, at least too bad anyway."

"Yes sir!" the saluted and blurted at once.

The leader turned away with a smirk. 'Your time is up Optimus Prime. You'll regret the day you ever became Prime.'

-

For several days Optimus watched from the Moon but nothing came. Thanks to Cybertron, they were able to track that the possible invaders were using a warp gate, which would mean they would be passing by Earth at any time. He began to worry that perhaps Cybertron misjudged their E.T.A to Earth's solar system but so far nothing was coming up.

Optimus even had Jetfire scout all through the Solar System to see if he could pick up any ion trail but the main Vice Commander couldn't even pick up a scratch. This was starting to bother him. Of course that wasn't the only thing that irritated him, he couldn't do anything for his human friend and her troubles. She was so upset that she had started staying at the base more than at home. Her parents would call the teen's cell, but she wouldn't answer it. He knew Alexis was also feeling the pain of it as well.

When Jetfire was done his daily search of the sytem, he decided to speak with Optimus about his slight trouble on Earth, before venturing back to Earth. He found his Commander in the old throne room. The Autobot he was searching for was over near the destroyed throne, clenching his fists.

"Optimus," Jetfire called out, not wanting to startle the leader.

Optimus slightly lifted his, taking note on the voice who just called him. "Yes Jetfire."

"I'm done my scout and about to leave for Earth. But before I go I would like to speak with you. It's not about this potential crisis, but it can cause problems to Alexis' judgement."

Optimus turned full alert to his second in command. "What is wrong with Alexis?"

"Well Alexis is really not the full problem. It's her friend Sandy. The girl is really upset and Alexis would love to help her but she can't. And frankly I wish I could help to."

"What is wrong with Sandy that would cause Alexis to be upset?"

"The teen just lost her grandmother and she was forced to watch over the old woman everyday. She couldn't even get a job. Now she won't even leave the base or answer her cell phone when her parents call."

"I see," answered Optimus. "I suppose I see why Alexis could be disturbed by this. She is after all the girl's best friend and Alexis is now struggling with her life as a Transformer and the life she was forced to leave behind."

Jetfire nodded. "I wish there is something we can do for Sandy. But we have to be ever watchful for this invasion. I haven't even allowed anyone to go to the island since learning of this problem. I haven't even allowed Alexis or the others to be human either since finishing up with the human sized furniture. Oh I also should let you know Alexis did something without anyone's knowledge.

Optimus gave a look of surprise. What would his daughter do against everyone? "What did she do?"

"She activated the warp gate to Cybertron the night Sandy talked about her troubles at home."

"Did she go through or did someone come here?"

"Someone came here. I checked very carefully when I figured someone had opened the gate and with the ion trails I was even able to learn who came to the base. But they were only there for a few minutes and then they went back."

"Who?" the Autobot leader inquired.

"Elita." That simple answer was all that was needed.

"Elita?" Optimus jolted. "Why would Alexis contact her?"

"That I am uncertain. I could check the security logs and see I the spy cam was on at that time."

"No. When you get down to Earth, I would like to see Alexis?"

Jetfire nodded. "I will send her up here. But someone will have to go with her as she has never set foot in this base before."

Optimus nodded. He turned away from his second in command. "I will be here waiting for her."

Jetfire turned and left the room and headed to the gate room where Cyclonus was busy monitoring any activities. The big space shuttle walked towards the gate pad. "Send me back to Earth and in a few minutes, once I find Alexis, she will be coming here."

"Alexis," the copter grinned. "Haven't see her in forever. I wonder how she is."

Jetfire rolled his optics at the copter. He was always too cheerful to his liking. Within moments, Jetfire was in the gate room at the base. He rushed headed off to search for Alexis and found her admiring the new human furniture. He could see the sadness in her posture about her friend.

"Alexis," Jetfire said softly.

Alexis turned. "Hey Jetfire. How was your scouting?"

"Empty as usual. Listen Optimus would like to have a few words with you. But he's still on the Moon and he would like you to go up there."

"Me? Go to the old Decepticon base? Optimus does know I have never been there."

"Yes and don't worry. Cyclonus is in the gate room. I'm sure he can show you where Optimus is. He's in the old throne room."

Alexis nodded and made her way to the gate room. Once there and the gate was activated, she was greeted by her friend who always loved to laugh.

"Well how you been?" he chuckled.

Alexis rolled her optics. "Could be better. Sometimes it's still hard having a split life."

"Yeah, I can see how that could be difficult. I guess you want to see Optimus."

Alexis smiled. One thing she liked about the Decepticon was he always loved to laugh and sometimes when she was down, she would listen to him and chuckle at his laughing, which always made her feel better. Cyclonus escorted through the holey hallways. Just looking around she could see why this was used as the Decepticon base. When she finally arrived at the old main area of the base, she saw Optimus looking out a hole, staring at the Earth.

Cyclonus quickly excused himself and went back to his station.

"Thank you for coming," Optimus said.

"I'm surprised you wanted to see me," she answered as she walked closer to him.

When she was close enough, he turned her and took her hands. "Alexis you know you can speak to me about anything."

"Yes, I know that," she replied slowly. What was this all about?

He saw the questionable look in her optics. He pulled her close. "I just wanted to know if you had anything to talk to me about. I do miss you. I don't want you to think you have to go behind me for anything."

Alexis accepted the embrace, letting her guard down to enjoy this parental moment. She sighed as she realized she must have been caught sneaking Elita-1 to the base. She did not count on someone being able to monitor the gate logs. "I spoke with Elita-1," she admitted.

Optimus was hoping she would bring up the subject of why his mate was on Earth, even if it was for only a few minutes. He pulled her back so he could look at her. "Why?" he asked softly. He didn't want to scare her.

"Forgive me, but I went to her because she might have been able to help in an area where you can not. She's a femme and a leader. I wanted some advice from a woman's standpoint of leadership. I didn't want anyone to know in case I was making a mistake."

Optimus pulled her close again. "In the future can you please inform me or Jetfire when you do something like that? We could all be attacked at any time and I worry for your safety."

Alexis stayed close, leaning her head on Optimus' shoulder. "I will," she whispered. "I don't want to go."

"I don't either," he whispered. "I love you, my daughter."

"I love you … father."

The two hugged each other for a few more minutes before she reluctantly pulled away. Optimus escorted her back to the gate room and transported her home. When she was gone, he felt lonely again. Cyclonus caught on and he guessed why. In the three years he had been stationed on the Moon base, he had noticed how much of a bond the Autobot leader and the former human had gotten. He knew she was mated to Starscream, but the bond to Optimus was different, more family oriented. Besides Optimus had his own mate. He had realized the two had shared a parental bondage.

-

Sideswipe was monitoring in the command room. He had decided to scope out each major area that they were able to get a sky cam set up. As he scanned there was a small town that seemed to be a little out of place. Using the cam, he zoomed in closer. To his surprising optics he could see some smoke coming from one of the bigger buildings. It was a school!

With a slam of his fist on the computer console, a red alert noise sounded throughout the base. The Autobots all knew what that meant and it meant trouble. They all had rushed to the command area.

"What's going on?" rushed out Jetfire.

"Sir, look!" Sideswipe answered.

Jetfire did as requested and he shocked. "A school on fire, but how?"

"I'm not sure sir," Sideswipe answered. "But I can tell you it's deliberate. You can see small dark figures throwing fuel to the fire."

"There might be children in that school!" Sandy blurted. "We got to get them out."

"I agree," Jetfire answered. "Blurr, Hotshot, Sideswipe and Red Alert go to their aid. But be careful."

"Where's Alexis?" Sandy asked.

"She's busy," Jetfire answered. "She should be back shortly. Sandy, why don't you go with them? If there is any humans in the school you will be the only able to assert a rescue. And take as many as the Mini-Cons as you can. They can help for evacuation as well."

"I'm on my way."

The said gang quickly ran off towards the gate room. Before leaving, Hotshot quickly grabbed Sandy and ran to catch up with the others.

Once they were ready and Sandy was geared up in the clothes the kids always wore when they would go on a mission, the gate was activated and soon they were in the town, not too far away from the fire. The guys had to act quickly. Blurr and Sideswipe soon made a barricade so no other cars could get through. Luckily for them, the fire trucks had arrived but they were not doing so well. Hotshot and Red Alert quickly squeezed themselves into the area where Sandy got out and started rushing to evacuate the surrounding area. She couldn't try to get in the burning building quite just yet.

When everyone was away except for the Autobots and fire trucks, one little kid appeared from a broke window and began screaming for help and screaming there was others.

Sandy looked horrified but she didn't stopped. "Jolt! I need your help!"

The little Mini-Con ran from his master to assist Sandy.

"I need to get up there and there's others too!"

The Mini-Con beeped a few lines before suddenly a bunch of Mini-Cons came jumping out of the Autobots. Knowing what type of situation, they could be dealing with, Sandy made sure to only grab the Mini-Cons that could fly.

Climbing onto Jolt, she quickly instructed the Mini-Cons to fly to the window the kid was calling from. Soon enough she was in the classroom. Young students, no older than seven were huddled into one corner while the teacher tried to snuff out the flames that were beginning to creep into the room.

"Madam!" Sandy yelled as she ran to the woman. "That is not going to stop!"

"How did you…" she tried to question

"No time. I'm here to get you out. I have friends with me too. These are called Mini-Cons and please don't ask questions. I need your help to help me get two kids on each flying contraption."

"But …"

Sandy grabbed the woman. "Our lives are endanger and so are these children. You would be a hero to them if they were able to make it safely to their Moms and Dads. So please help me."

The teacher numbly nodded and ran over to the kids. Both Sandy and the teacher began to put two children on each Mini-Con. Sandy did her best to instruct each child to hold on tight until they were on the ground. Finally there was only Sandy and the teacher left and now half the room was engulfed in flames. They began to violently cough from the smoke.

"We got … cough … to get out … cough … here!" Sandy tried.

The young adult and teacher ran as fast as they could to the window to try and breath a little better, but it was just as hard there too. Through teary eyes, as the smoke was hindering her vision, she barely was able to make out two Mini-Cons flying towards her.

Going on the assumption that it was, She grabbed the coughing woman's hand. "We're going to jump!"

"Are you crazy … cough! We'll be killed."

"My friends won't allow that," Sandy tried to reassure. But if we don't jump now …" Sandy took a major coughing fit. When she finally got the coughing controlled she continued. "We will lose consciousness. I can already feel my body protesting against moving."

"I can't," the woman panic. "I'm afraid of heights."

Sandy nearly choked again as she saw Jolt and another Mini-Con in front of her. "Ma'am. Get on the Mini-Con and keep your eyes closed." This time Sandy wasn't going to take no for an answer. She pulled the woman out the window. The Mini-Con closest to the woman allowed her body to settle on him. When she was secured, she flew down, with her screaming. Sandy grabbed onto Jolt, allowing him to take her out of the building.

When the women were on the ground, paramedics came to their aid and started giving them medical treatment. They knew the women had inhaled smoke, but luckily for the women, that was all they had. By this time the parents of the scared children were running on the scene to hug their children.

The teacher was rushed into an ambulance as she went into shock. The paramedics were going to take Sandy as well but she declined and quickly ran off to the parents, she didn't care about her health at the moment. She knew Red Alert would help her. And she was sure he was going to force her to ride with him on the way back.

Sandy tried her best to keep her coughing down as she approached the parents. All the children then began saying how Sandy saved them. Grateful parents soon surrounded the older teen to give their thanks, but within moments they were back hugging their children. Once the parents were gone from her and went back to fussing over their children, Sandy continued to make her way towards Red Alert. Not wanting to hear his arguments, she climbed into him and just sat there.

An oxygen mask came up from the dashboard and she gently grabbed it and placed it over her face. No words were shared between the two as the other firemen started to get the fire out. None of the Autobots left and they remained there until after the fire was out. By this time a humanized Alexis, Jetfire, Blaster and Hoist arrived on the scene to help with whatever they could.

Sandy could see, with a smile, as Alexis began arguing with the police who were on the scene saying she needed to check the place out for terrorism. Of course the police did not believe her, at that was until Jetfire stepped in. Sandy couldn't make out what they were saying but she could tell the policemen were a little startled and they eventually allowed Alexis to do what she needed to do.

As Alexis began look around the burnt school, she saw shadows moving. She called to them and they ran off in a hurry. She tried her best to chase them, but they were too fast. Overhead there was a red and white jet, he was travelling around in Stealth mode so no one could hear him.

"What did you see?" she called into her comlink.

"They disappeared right where you are," a raspy voice answered. "I don't like this."

"Neither do I," she said. "At least everyone is safe. Hey did they look familiar to you?"

"It was harder for me to see at this altitude. But I'm only currently picking up one signal and that's you. There were three others, but they disappeared. Is something the matter?"

"Perhaps. From what I can gather, they were not normal human height and they were too bulky looking to be humans. Starscream head back to the base and analyze your data, try and see if there was something your sensors picked up that is hard for the naked optic to see."

"Will do," he answered. "I'll see you there, my love."

Alexis looked up to see the red and white jet soar off towards the base. She turned away to report her findings. Of course it took her several minutes to find Jetfire and when she did, he was leaning against Blurr's hood.

"Good, you're back. What do you have to report?"

"Not much I'm afraid. As I was looking around I saw three figures, it was, somehow too dark to see. I was able to tell they were not normal human height nor were they human body built. I chased them into a field behind the school where from Starscream's point of view, they disappeared."

"Disappeared?" Jetfire blinked. "How?"

"I'm not sure," she answered. "I did ask him to go back to the base and check his sensors to see if something was picked up that he couldn't physically see."

"That's a good idea," Jetfire agreed. "Well all better head back to the base. I'm sure Red Alert was to check on Sandy."

"Jetfire, if you don't mind. I'll go back with Red Alert and assist with helping Sandy."

Jetfire nodded before he climbed into Blurr. When Alexis was looking around. Jetfire gathered the Mini-Cons and when they were all ready in the vehicles of the Autobots, they headed back to the base.

Alexis climbed into the driver's seat of Red Alert. She looked at Sandy and saw her unconscious. "Is she going to be ok?"

"Yes," the car answered. "I gave her some oxygen, but also a sleeping gas. She inhaled too much smoke, saving those kids. But she did it. She did a good job."

Alexis slightly smiled at her friend. "She loves kids."

Once everyone was back at the base, Jetfire contacted Optimus and informed him in what happened. Optimus had a dreadful feeling he was too late. Whatever was coming to Earth was already on Earth. He quickly transported down to Earth.

"What happened?" the Autobot leader asked.

Jetfire brought up the sensors Starscream detected. "This is what Starscream found while flying around in stealth mode. As you can see you," the white warrior said. "There are three blips on the radar. Starscream didn't pay much attention to them as his biggest concern was for the safety of everyone. He told me he was ready to blow our cover to save all the children. That was until Sandy risked her life. She used the Mini-Cons to rescue a group of children and their teacher from the school as they were trapped in the building."

"Starscream has learnt how to have a big heart when it comes to human life," Optimus mused dryly. "It was nice of Sandy to rescue those children. She handled herself quite well."

Jetfire nodded. "Once I finally got the permission to scope out the building, Alexis went looking and she found three shadow figured but they disappeared, even off Starscream's radar. She also reported they did not look human to her. Sir from what we gathered and what we know, I beginning to think the invaders are here."

Optimus turned away and sighed. "I think you're right." He was quiet for a few moments. "Jetfire open the comlink and activate the one on the Moon as well."

With not a word, Jetfire did as asked. He had a feeling what his commander was going to say.

"Autobots and the few Decepticons that can here as well," Optimus began. "As you all know there was a group that left Cybertron. They may have sneaked past our defences and could be here on Earth now. I don't know how they would have done it, but they must have.

"Therefore I am ordering a switching of leadership. I, Optimus Prime, am taking back the command of this base until further notice. Jetfire will again be the Vice Commander. The rest of you will take your commands from either Jetfire or myself." Optimus nodded his head for Jetfire to close the comlink.

-

Alexis was in the medical bay when she heard that. She looked at Red Alert as she held her friend's hand, as she was still unconscious. "Red Alert. What does that mean?"

"It means," the medic said. "You are no longer in command. You are now just a warrior like the rest of us."

"You mean I no longer have to give orders. I no longer have the responsibilities to the safety of the Autobots?"

"Unless Jetfire or Optimus give you an assignment and lead that mission," he stated simply. He turned and continued looking at the readouts of Sandy's condition and vital signs. "Good. She didn't inhale as much smoke as I thought she did. I'm going to take her to her quarters."

Red Alert turned off the equipment and walked over to the table.

"Red Alert, I want to go with her. I want to be sure I'm the first one she sees when she wakes up," Alexis explained. "She will be confused and probably disoriented too."

"Agreed." Red Alert carefully picked of the two teens and headed towards the quarters that Sandy made as her room.

When the girl was resting on her bed, Red Alert left the room to speak with Optimus of Sandy's condition. Red Alert wasn't gone too long when Sandy finally woke up. The first thing she felt was a soft mattress underneath her and someone holding her hand.

She turned to see Alexis looking at her with concern. "What happened?" Sandy asked.

"We are back at the base and Red Alert gave you a sleeping gas with the oxygen. He feared you over exerted yourself. But you're fine and all the kids were saved thanks to you."

Sandy slightly smiled. "Did you find out what happened to the school?"

"Optimus and Jetfire thinks it's because those figures who left Cybertron on here. And if that's the case, they were able to slip past Earth's defenses and land without anyone's knowledge. Optimus has returned to take back command."

"That means you're no longer Vice Commander of the Earth team."

Alexis nodded her agreement. "Jetfire is back being Vice Commander, which leaves me to be a normal warrior and now can give my friend the support she needs."

Tears threatened to fall as Sandy quickly sat up and hugged her friend. Sandy felt quite relieved that her friend was no longer leading. She was also thankful now her friend could try get her bearings straight be a good warrior. The former teen was still battling her emotions from when she hurt her friends and now her father was back in town and the former teen had to also deal with the idea of her having a new little brother, which she never knew about.


	7. Mystery Attack

**7 – Mystery Attack**

Since Optimus came back from the Moon, there had been a few other incidents and they were not in the town the Autobots lived in. They were in other parts of the world. The incidents mostly consisted of a building in flames a group of people being trapped in the building. Each time the Autobots Headed out, Optimus and Jetfire would also remain behind. With one incident, Optimus didn't have to worry about sending any of his men out as humans. With the four boys and Sandy, they were able to do nicely.

"Anything Optimus?" Alexis asked as she walked in the room.

Optimus and Jetfire turned to the female seeker. "Nothing yet, I'm afraid. Jetfire contact the group. It's way to silent."

Jetfire nodded and turned to communicate with his friends on the field. He got through to Hotshot. "Hotshot, report."

"We got here a little too late," Hotshot answered in solemn voice. "Sandy and the boys are checking the wreckage to see if there were any bodies. They've been through Most of the wreckage and found none."

Optimus clenched his fist. Who would be doing this? This did not sound like something Thrust would do. "Are the authorities there?" he asked to Hotshot.

"Yes," the yellow Autobot answered. "They are actually the ones getting the kids to help look." Optimus then heard something but since Hotshot was little distance away he couldn't make out what was said.

"What was that Hotshot?" Optimus asked after the background noise was gone.

"They have called off the search. They just finished going through the wreckage and found nothing. It would appear as if this building has suffered from a practical joke, sir. The fire was deliberate but there was no one inside."

"What was the building?" Jetfire asked.

"A garage. The only thing they've been able to find is a burnt out car and many tools."

Optimus sighed. "At least no one was hurt. And we both know it wasn't a practical joke."

"No sir. Rad has found something that is very unusual to find in a garage. He's bringing it back. As long as he can sneak it back to me."

"Good work," Optimus said. "Collect up the kids and get back here as soon as you can."

"We will sir. Hotshot out."

Optimus turned away and saw Alexis, he could see the worry in her soft face. Though she was a transformer now, she was able to retain many human features, including soft metal on her face. "Alexis when they get back I want you and Red Alert to study whatever object Rad is bringing back."

Alexis nodded. She turned and headed towards the gate room, but she was soon cut off as a handsome red seeker jet was in her way. She smiled warmly at him. She saw him smile back.

"While you were gone," Alexis smile faded. "There was another incident."

"Again?" he said in his usual raspy voice, smile gone.

Alexis nodded. "The boys and Sandy are there right now but they were too late to save the building. Luckily it was just a garage. They just went through what's left of the building and found nothing but tools, a burnt out car and something else that Rad is going to bring back."

"Who would be targeting humans?" he asked.

Alexis shook her head and then pulled herself close to him, which he immediately wrapped his arms around her. "I don't know," she said sadly. "But I'm afraid who ever it is, is toying with us. You know trying to distract us. For whatever big thing they are planning."

"I agree," he said. "So you are heading to the gate room?"

She looked up at him. "Yes. Optimus wants Red Alert and myself to study the object Rad is bringing back. But I'm sure I have a few minutes with you."

Starscream lightly smiled, before capturing her lips. When he pulled away, he looked at her lovingly. "I better make my report."

"I'll see you later," she said. She pulled out of his arms and continued her way to the gate room. She wasn't there long when the Autobots and human friends came back from their adventure. She watched as the boys and Sandy exited from the cars, which were Hotshot, Blurr, Sideswipe and Red Alert. Once the humans were out, they all transformed.

Alexis looked at Red Alert. "Optimus wants you and me to study the object Rad brought back."

"That's a good idea," Red Alert agreed. He turned and bent down to the blond boy and handed out his hand.

Rad nodded and placed the precious small item in Red Alert's hand. When Red Alert was standing back to his full height, him and Alexis left the gate room to study the item. The other Autobots also left leaving the kids in the gate room.

Rad turned to Sandy. "So, how do you like staying here?"

She looked at him and shrugged. "It's a place to stay. I really don't know how long I will be staying here. Maybe long enough for my parents to finally get a clue. I'm not a means to and end."

Rad gave Sandy a look of sympathy. "I'm really sorry about that," he said. "I wish there was something I can do for you."

"There's really only one thing you can do for me," she smiled. "And that's by just being my friend."

Carlos winked at her and gave her a piece sign. "I think we can do that."

"Come on," Rad said. "Let's go and relax. There is nothing for us to do now but sit and wait."

The five teens walked out of the gate room and towards their little lounge.

-

In the Sahara Desert, down beneath the sands, the leader of this renegade team looking over a computer console. He heard a noise from behind him.

"Back from your mission so soon," the leader turned.

The warrior smiled. "It was just like you said. The Autobots would come running, thinking there were humans trapped inside. Though they did arrive a little too late."

"Was there any humans present?"

"No sir. They had taken another car, which was inside as well. Though the garage did go up like a roman candle."

"Humans should be more careful around their belongings. Too much flammable items in one location could seriously be dangerous." The leader then laughed. "Why do I care anyway? Once the second part of my plan is in place. They won't be able to stop me."

"Sir," the warrior said. "When do you plan to put your next plan into action? The other warriors are getting restless with all these pitiful arsons."

"For your information," the leader nearly hissed. But with the little mask over his face, one could not tell if he was grinning or not. "The pitiful arsons have only been a distraction long enough for me to find the traitor's mate's mother."

"You mean Starscream's mate?"

"That's the one. Her mother is ultimate start of my revenge. Optimus Prime will soon pay for what he was done and I will make Shockwave pay as well. No Autobot or Decepticon should team up together. And once I cause the rift between the factions, I will disperse of the scum who joined my team."

The warrior smiled. "That sounds like a plan. Who will you send out to do this job?"

"I first thought of the ones who joined from the other side," the leader said. "But then I thought about it and realized that they wouldn't be the best for the job. If they get caught they will probably spill out the coordinates of our base. And I can't let Optimus know we're here quite just yet. I already know he suspects."

"Then let me go sir," the warrior said. "I already have the ability to disguise myself quite well."

"No. I'll go," the leader said. "I want to be sure everything goes out perfectly according to my plan."

The warrior nodded and left the room so his leader could contemplate his plan.

-

Out on a farm in Maine, Mrs. MacDonald had worked quite heavily in the stables. Though she had now been there for three years, she never realized how hard it was for a farmer to maintain his or her farm. Luckily she wasn't the only who worked there. She had hired some young men who were more than willing to help her with the chores. The young men were actually some cousins of hers and they were quite content on working on a family farm.

When the day's chores were all done, the young men went home to their wives or girlfriends and allowed Mrs. MacDonald to relax. She decided to she was going to take an evening swim. She was only going to take a quit dip to cool herself off from having such a long day. As she turned to head inside, she heard a jet above her. Normally jets were never heard this far away. She smiled, thinking it was her daughter and mate but her smiles soon turned to horror as suddenly the stables and other barnyard buildings were quickly destroyed. It happened so fast, no sounds could be heard except for the loud whistle of what ever was attacking.

She didn't know what to do as she watched helplessly as her animals were suddenly being destroyed. But the problem was, she couldn't see where the attack was coming from. She could hear the jet soaring through the sky but nothing else.

A Mini-Con came flying out of the house at top speed and began beeping like crazy. He saw his human partner paralyzed where she was standing. He ran back in the house and contacted the Autobots.

-

Alexis was in the control room. She was done analyzing the item from the garage. It was piece of Cybertronian metal but other than that, there was nothing to go on. Optimus assumed right then and there the invaders were already on Earth and he asked for Alexis to contact the ones at the Moon base to inform the others to come here to Earth. As Alexis was about to contact the Moon base an urgent message was suddenly coming from Maine. Knowing it was her mother, she quickly opened the channel only to see the Mini-Con she made her mother take with her for protection.

"What's going on?" Alexis asked in rush.

-The farm is being attacked! By an unknown source! Please hurry!- he beeped.

"No! Mother!" Alexis screamed. She slammed her fist on the comlink and then yelled. "My Mom is being attacked!"

-

Hotshot was just getting ready to watch the boys and Sandy have a game of cards when they heard Alexis frantic voice over the comlink. "My Mom is being attacked!"

Hotshot was quick to jump to his feet and other the door before the kids could even react. They were quick to scramble to their feet but Hotshot was already ahead of them and out the door. As the exited the lounge they were met with Blurr and Springer as they came around the corner. Without a word, the two quickly scooped up the kids and continued on running.

They were heading straight to the gate room where they could assist. By the time they got there, Optimus was already there.

"What's going on?" Springer asked.

"I'm not sure but Alexis seemed very frantic about it," Blurr answered.

"Agreed. I already have the coordinates plugged. The three of us are going stat! Kids you come to."

The kids were placed on the floor so the two Autobots could transform. Springer transformed into his land vehicle mode.

"Launch!" Optimus demanded and activated the warp gate.

When the rematerialized in the field of farm, they were in complete shock. Alexis wasn't kidding that her mother was being attacked. Most of the property was being attacked. Optimus was about to make a command, but Springer quickly transformed into his air mode and took to the air to see if he could figure what is causing the attack. They could hear a jet flying about, but could see nothing. Not even on their radar could they see anything.

Blurr drove off towards the house. He had two of the kids while Optimus had the other three. Once Blurr got to the house, which was being consumed in flames, Billy and Sandy ran out so Blurr could transform. There was no time to give commands or even question orders. They had to act fast.

The two kids looked frantically around as Blurr began to work out the flames that were also beginning to consume the land itself. Optimus finally got up to the house and allowed the other three kids out so he could transform into Super Optimus.

He looked up to see the Springer above him and he was attacking something. So there was something in the sky. His attention was quickly diverted as he heard a woman scream coming from the tree line. He turned towards the trees to see a line of fire heading straight towards the trees, but that was not all. Alexis' mother and Mini-Con was also there.

He quickly transformed back to the truck and headed, top speed towards the tree line to beat the fire as it got closer to the human and Mini-Con. Once he was close enough, he Transformed back to his bot mode and dove to the ground, grabbing the woman and Mini-Con, just before the fire could reach her. He rolled out of the way. Once out of the way, he used his body as shield from the smoke and anything else from the fire.

He looked Mrs. MacDonald. "I got you," he said quietly. "You're safe now."

Mrs. MacDonald looked up to see the large face of the Autobot leader who adopted her daughter as his. The Mini-Con beside her, pulled the woman into his arms as the woman began to sob from fear, shock, horrified and anything else she could think of that would give her reasons to cry over.

Springer watched as leader dove towards the woman to save her. He also watched as a single line of high flames heading towards the woman. He knew that was not normal. When a fire would burn, it would burn out of control and spread like splashing water. Whatever started that line of fire was doing it deliberately. He took his attention back towards the sky where he saw a missile come from nowhere and begin to drop to the ground.

He opened his comlink to Blurr. "Blurr!" he shouted. "Look out! Missile directly above you!"

Blurr looked up to see the missile, coming directly towards. He grabbed the kids and ran from the house. An explosion suddenly sounded and he was thrown to the ground. He looked up to see a ball of flame and smoke where the house stood. He knew the house was the target and it was just blown up. He looked at Sandy to see she got a cut. Rad had a few scrapes, but they were too bad. The others were also more fairing like Rad.

While Blurr was hitting the deck, Springer couldn't focus on his friend as he had his own problems to deal with. He had to stop whatever phantom jet was attacking. He started to shoot another set of laser fire towards whatever was attacking. He had to stop this thing, whatever this thing was. As he continued to shoot, he saw that his blind aim suddenly hit something. "Gotcha!" he breathed out.

He could see there was smoke appearing out of nowhere, which meant there was a jet directly in front of him, but then suddenly it was gone. Completely disappeared. Springer couldn't even hear the jet anymore, only the sound of his own engine.

Knowing that the bastard had taken off, that coward, Springer had to go and help his friends. He soon landed on the ground and transformed in front of Blurr. He was relieved to know his friend got out of the way quick enough. He looked towards the ball of fire and smoke to see there was going to nothing left of the house.

Optimus looked up at the moment the missile hit and activated his comlink to the base. "Alexis, Starscream, Ariel Bots and Jetfire. Get here on the double with a bucket brigade. We have to get these flames before it his the trees too much. There's already a fire at the trees and spreading fast."

-

Alexis listened to the orders that were handed down. She quickly called the members Optimus wanted. Starscream had been with her, comforting her as the Autobots headed to the farm. Starscream looked at her. "Be brave, beloved. I'm sure your mother is ok or Optimus would not have send for you as well. But let's go and help the others. We are needed. Stay with me."

Alexis nodded and moved away from her mate. The two then ran their way to the gate room. To Alexis' surprise, Red Alert was also there. She didn't question his reasons. In fact she was grateful. He was the team's medic after all and there could be injuries.

They gated to the farm to see mostly fire and smoke. Alexis nearly began to panic when she felt a hand tightly squeeze her. She looked to see Starscream staring at her.

"Take to the air and let's get this fire out!" Jetfire called.

Soon all seekers and jets were in the air, using whatever water source they could to take out the fire. Jetfire focused his efforts on the fire that was at the tree line where he could see Optimus was still curled over. As Jetfire concentrated to get the fire out, he opened his comlink.

"Optimus, sir. Are you ok?"

Optimus sighed in relief the cavalry had arrived. "I'm fine Jetfire. Is Alexis with you?"

"Yes, her and Starscream are working on putting out that big ball of fire."

"Please let her know, so she doesn't have to worry anymore that her mother is safe. I have her with me. Her and the Mini-Con are both safe."

"So that's why you're curled up. You're using your body to protect her."

"I think though I may need Red Alert's help."

"I'll let him know. He came as well."

Optimus lightly chuckled. "That's Red Alert for you."

Jetfire switched his comlink for others to hear. "Attention everyone. Mrs. MacDonald is ok. She and her Mini-Con are in Optimus' care near the tree line where I am. Red Alert, Optimus may have some injuries as he's been using his body to protect Mrs. MacDonald."

Starscream noticed Alexis faltered a little. "Stay with me," he said. "At least she's safe. You can see her when we're done."

"I know." Her voice felt like it was going to crack. "I'm just relieved to know she's ok. That ball of flame is…was the house."

Starscream activated his sensors and found what Alexis said to be true. He could sense a structure of cement that was below the ground. He was about to say something more when someone else spoke through the comlink.

"The other farm buildings are out but there's hardly anything left."

Starscream recognized the voice as being Silverbolt, the lead of the Gestalt Ariel bots.

"Good," Starscream said. "We could use your help here where the house stood."

"We're on our way," Silverbolt announced.

Before long all fires were out. Alexis could see the remains of where the house stood. Not even a shred of evidence was left, except for the burnt out shell of a basement. She nearly felt tears hit when she remembered Optimus was protecting her mother. She quickly ran the length of the field where Red Alert was attending to Optimus. The Autobot was hunched for so long, his gears became stiff from the heat and smoke.

"Mother!" Alexis called.

Red Alert and Jetfire turned to see the female seeker come running towards them. Jetfire held out his hand, showing Alexis her mother was safe.

"Alexis!" her mother called.

Alexis held out her hand and Jetfire gently placed the human in her hand. The woman then hugged Alexis' thumb.

"I'm alright," she said. "Thanks to Optimus. He saved me. Who could have done such a thing?"

Alexis looked at Jetfire and seen him shake his head. She knew that she couldn't really speak of the matter. She looked at her mother and cuddled her with her other hand. "We're not completely sure, but we are going to find out. That I promise you."

"Alexis," Optimus said, once he was able to stand. "Why don't you head back to the base with your mother. Red Alert has already check her for injuries and she's free to go."

"Optimus…" she trailed.

He looked at her with softened optics. "Take this time to be with your mother, but please stay at the base where it's safe. There is nothing more you can do here." He knew she was asking to be human.

Alexis smiled and then quickly hugged Optimus, being careful of her mother. Optimus hugged her back as best as his stiff gears would allow him. "Now go and be with your mother…my daughter," he whispered in her audio receptors.

Alexis turned away and headed back to towards Starscream. Starscream instructed for the kids to go too and he was going to remain for a bit longer. When Optimus seen Alexis and the kids leave, he called all his men to him.

"I have no doubt in my mind now, that our invasion has begun. Springer you were the one who stopped who ever was doing this. What could you see?"

"Frankly sir," the green triple changer said. "There wasn't much to see. I could hear the creep but I could not see him. I even fired upon it, blindly, and eventually was able to hit it. I was going to fire another shot when suddenly it was gone. Completely disappeared."

"Like the thing teleported away," Starscream rasped out. "That sounds like an old Decepticon trick. But I never knew of any Decepticons who had the ability to attack while cloaked."

"Perhaps it is time to speak with Sideflare and Sideways about this matter," Optimus said. "Perhaps they knew of some Transformers who have that technology."

"Those two mostly keep to themselves," Jetfire said. "Sideways has completely remembered everything of his past but he still battles with himself of his old life to the life Unicron gave him."

"And what of Sideflare?"

"She has completely adapted to her new life though she still seems to fear Unicron may return. I hardly ever see her though I know she does her work that is requested of her."

Optimus nodded. "When we get back, I'm going to speak with both of them."

Sirens were heard in the distance.

"Optimus," Hotshot said. "Here come the authorities."

"Men, let's move out." Optimus ordered. He activated the warp gate the group were soon gone just as the fire trucks and ambulance arrived on the scene.

The moment Optimus and his men were back in the base, He sent Jetfire to find Sideways and Sideflare. Red Alert began to fuss over his leader, saying he still had same smoke related injuries. Knowing his medical officer wasn't going to give up on that, Optimus had asked Starscream to contact that Moon Base and requested that the officers on the Moon were to come to Earth immediately, trouble had arrived. The other Autobots went to find Alexis and her mother to make sure, for themselves, that the older woman was ok.


	8. Getting Settled

_Author's Notes: Instead of always calling Alexis' mother 'Mrs. MacDonald' all the time. I have decided to give the woman a first name; June._

**8 – Getting Settled**

After getting back to the base, Red Alert was able to finish his examination of Alexis' mother. Alexis was human at this point and the moment Red Alert completed his exam, Alexis was hugging her mother tightly and crying. Her mother was holding her daughter and saying soft things to her, giving her reassurance everything was all right. Red Alert took this moment to leave the two women alone. He left the room and searched for Optimus, who was currently speaking with Sideflare and Sideways.

Optimus had been wondering if Thrust was the one who had attacked. But how could he have gotten that power? No Transformer had the ability to attack like that. The cpu of each Transformer was never able to handle such a power upgrade. It would take a lot of power and energon to focus an attack while cloaked. Of course if it was Thrust it would explain some things. Thrust did not agree with the treaty and he was a traitor to the Decepticons. Optimus also started to wonder of the Autobots who had disappeared without a trace on Cybertron. His thoughts were quickly interrupted.

"I know of no one who could," Sideflare answered to Optimus. "Unless Transformers have upgraded since I was a spy for Unicron."

Optimus sighed in frustration. "And you Sideways?"

"There might be one, but he has been named a traitor to the Transformers," Sideways answered truthfully.

"Thrust?" Optimus said.

The motorcycle Transformer nodded. "Yes. When I recruited him for Unicron, Unicron did do something but I have no idea what that was."

Sideflare, who was a red jeep, looked at Sideways. "So again you knew more than I did. I had no idea what Unicron was doing besides what he would feed me."

Sideways looked at her. "That's because you weren't his prize pupil."

"Knock it off, both of you," Optimus stated. "I will not have you peg each other. Sideways, that is all you know about Thrust?"

"I believe so," Sideways turned his attention to the commander. "Though there is so much in my memory banks right now it can be hard to sift through them and pick out what is which time."

"I understand."

"Sir," Sideflare said. "If you don't mind me asking, but what is this all about?"

"Alexis' mother was attacked by a mystery attacker. They were dropping missiles to the ground, while invisible."

"That doesn't sound like a Transformer tactic," Sideflare said. "Is everyone alright?"

"Yes. We were able to save Mrs. MacDonald but her farm is completely gone."

"Well at least the human is fine," Sideways answered.

"Yes, this is true," Optimus admitted. "I'm going to go and see how she is doing."

Optimus turned away from the former warriors of Unicron and headed towards the medical bay. As he began his trip back he came across Red Alert who was looking for him.

"Red Alert," the commander called. "How's Mrs. MacDonald?"

"Physically she is fine. Emotionally that's another matter," the medic answered. "Sir, who ever attacked her, could attack her again. Alexis is emotional as well."

Optimus nodded. "I figured she would. Is she human?"

"Yes," Red Alert answered. "Optimus. It may not be a good idea, but I have no other options but to allow Mrs. MacDonald to stay here."

Optimus sighed. "Alexis is going to want her to stay here and you are right she may be attacked again. Sideways thinks it could be Thrust. He doesn't know for sure, but Thrust is the only one he can think of that could have that kind of power, if he received it from Unicron."

"I agree," Red Alert nodded. "We should go let her know of your decision."

Optimus nodded and continued walking towards the medical bay with Red Alert with him. When they walked in a human Alexis and her mother were talking about her father.

"I don't know what to do," Alexis said, not noticing her friends were in the room. "Dad is getting remarried to a woman I never before and I now have a little brother…again." The last word was whispered.

Her mother hugged her close, "Oh sweetheart," she said. "You must do what you think is right. You do have the right to make your own decisions. And where you can be human like right now, you must try and take the effort to enjoy what humanity you do have."

"I agree," Sandy called as she ran into the room. She didn't pay attention as she ran from between Red Alert's legs. "Al, your father is going to expect you to be at that wedding and you already said if you went you'd be taking a couple Autobots."

Sandy stopped in front of her friend and her mother. "And just because what happened to your mother, doesn't mean you get to skip out on the rest of your human life. I think Starscream is looking forward to going. So for once why don't you listen to your mother and do the right the thing."

"Thank you Sandy."

"Don't mention it Mrs. MacDonald," Sandy smiled.

"Please, Sandy, call me June. That is my name. I'm actually no longer a Mrs and haven't been in three 3 years. Since shortly after what happened to Alexis."

Sandy looked a little sheepish. "Oh sorry. June then."

Optimus cleared his vocals, getting the ladies attention. They turned to the two warriors in the room. "Mrs…June," he started. He had heard the older woman ask Sandy to call her by her name. "I think it may be best for your safety and the safety of men and Alexis, if you were to stay here in the base."

"Stay here?" June asked. "I don't know.

Alexis smiled at the realization. "Oh please Mom. I would love it if you were here. You are most safest here and I won't have to worry about you now."

"Sweetheart," June said as she turned to her daughter. "I worry about you all the time. You are a warrior. You could get seriously wounded or even killed. I could never live with that. I already lost one. I couldn't bare to lose another."

"Already lost one?" Sandy questioned as she scratched her head. Then she remembered. Alexis had a twin brother but he was killed when he was only six or so years old. "Oh yeah."

Alexis stumped her foot. "Mom. Please, stay here. I miss you too much. Sandy has been able to accept me for who and what I am now, why can't you?"

"I do accept you for who you are now." June thought for a moment before looking at the Autobot leader. "I suppose," she said slowly. "I have no where else to go. The family farm has been destroyed along with the animals. I have nothing left but my daughter and her adopted family."

Sandy placed her hands on her hips. "Good. Now that, that's settled…" she turned to Alexis. "Now look here Missy. You are going to your father's wedding, whether you like it or not. Capish?"

Optimus let out a soft chuckle. Though the teen was going through some hard times, which he couldn't blame her, he did like her determination to be sure no one suffered.

Alexis lifted her hands up in defeat. "Alright. I'll go."

Satisfied, Sandy looked up at Optimus. "Speaking of families. Optimus, I don't suppose I could borrow one of the Autobots."

"For what reason?" Optimus asked.

"I should go and see my family. It's not right of me to hide up here," Sandy stated. She had hid from her family long enough. What happened to Alexis' mother helped to realize that just because Sandy was mad at her parents, didn't mean she had to avoid them all the time. Family was important.

Optimus nodded. "Of course you can."

Sandy smiled just as Cyclonus and Demolisher walked into the room. The two looked at the three humans.

"Well I guess you're human again," Cyclonus mocked.

Alexis shook her head. "Mom. Meet Cyclonus and Demolisher. They were once Decepticons to Megatron but since the treaty was signed they remained here, guarding Earth from the Moon Base the Decepticons created while they hunted for the Mini-Cons. Guys, this is my mother."

"Hi," Demolisher said. "I think we may have met before."

"Yes, but you were human and Alexis never told me that you two were once Decepticons," June said. "She only said you were fellow Transformers."

"Well I better get going before I lose the nerve to go," Sandy said. She turned to Alexis and gave her a hug. "I'll catch you later. You owe me a flight. I'll give you a call to let you know how things go."

Alexis smiled at her friend. "I hope things go better for you. But I'm right here if you need me."

Sandy then left in search of an Autobot who could drive her down. To her surprise she came upon Sideways as he was walking towards the targeting range.

"Sideways?" she approached carefully. She was told he could sometimes snap as he was battling two personalities.

The two faced warrior turned to the voice. When he saw no body to the voice, he looked down to see a red headed human girl. Her hair was long and pulled in a ponytail.

"Sandy right?" he ventured.

"Yes. I know you hardly know me and me to you, but I was wondering if I could get a lift to my parents."

"Why would you want me to take you?"

"Well you are a motorcycle and you are the first Autobot I've come across to ask. If you don't want to, that's ok. I know there's others to ask."

Sideways thought for a moment before transforming. "Hop on."

Sandy was astonished to his transformation. He was a good-looking motorcycle. She saw the little robot, which looked like a human in bike gear handing her a helmet. She took the helmet and placed it on her head. She climbed on behind the robot and squeezed it, giving indication she was ready. Once he felt her arms around him, Sideways quickly jumped into gear and headed towards the exit of the base and down the mountain.

-

A jet could be heard through the skies in the Sahara Desert, but no one could see anything, but then suddenly a jet did appear. At the back end there was smoke coming it. It had been damaged. The jet manoeuvred itself to start a landing. It soon went out of sight as it descended. When it was close enough to the ground, it transformed and then landed on the ground.

"Damn!" he jerked. "That hurts. He was shooting blind and yet Springer was able to get me."

He activated something on his robotic arm and a hatchway leading down below the sands opened up. He descended the long stairwell and when he was far enough down, the hatchway closed. He walked the rest of the distance to his secret base, which was under the sands of the Sahara.

When he made it to the bottom, he looked at two of the warriors, which were working on some other scraps of the broke down ships they came in.

"You look damaged," one said.

"Really?" he snapped. "I thought I had smoke coming out from my tail pipe for the fun it!"

"Thrust, you are back." Another warrior came out of the old temple, which was once on the surface of the ground. "I watched from the control room. You did quite well. Though the Autobots did escape."

"I wasn't there to destroy them, yet. I was there because of her."

"Sir," the first warrior who spoke said. "What do you mean?"

"Alexis. She poisoned the mighty Megatron and he died saving her life. Everyone says he sacrificed himself for the sake of the Decepticons, but I know that was not the case. He died because of her. I want her to suffer. Her mother survived and that's what I wanted."

"You mean the former human turned Autobot lied to everyone about why Megatron died? You know I have no idea what she looks like."

Thrust turned to second warrior who had not spoke until now. "Yes, you moron. And she can become human too. Somewhere on the Autobot base there is an underground lake that allows it possible. Optimus Prime and Alexis will pay for everything. Then once were disposed of with Earth, Shockwave is next."

Thrust walked into the old temple, leaving the two workers to their job. The third warrior followed him. "Sir," he warrior started. "I should warn you Tornado is coming."

"What?! Why is she coming?" Thrust turned to the warrior. "Wasn't she Megatron's mate?"

"Yes, she was," the warrior said. "But I got a communication from here just a few moments ago. She wants to join our renegade force. She has disliked what has happened to the Decepticons and she wishes to end the treaty as well."

Behind his faceplate, Thrust smiled. "More the merrier, I suppose. Tell the other warriors to no longer call me 'T-boss'. It's quite the annoying name. I'd rather be called my name, saviour to the Decepticon name. Now with Megatron gone, I will become the supreme ruler of the Decepticons and lead them into victory."

"Excellent idea," the warrior said. "The Decepticons will get confused and possibly retreat to the enemy, the Autobots, if there is no leader to lead them."

"Soon my brothers, Dirge and Ramjet will see the error of their ways," Thrust said. "Boltnut, go and prepare the arrival of Tornado."

"Yes, sir." Boltnut stopped and headed off in another direction, while Thrust continued towards the medical bay where he was treated for his injuries.

Thrust was not in good graces as he entered the medical bay. He stepped into the healing chamber and activated it. He hated being in the thing, but it was one good way so he didn't have to have other warriors touch him in case they decided to deactivate him and rule the renegade Decepticons themselves. He wasn't about to let that happen. And unfortunately for him, the Autobots and Decepticons on Cybertron and Earth had all the Mini-Cons. The Renegades had nothing.

"Once Alexis is out of my hair, we can steal her Mini-Con and slowly take back the power of the Mini-Cons. Sideways is going to wish he had destroyed me when he had the chance back three years," Thrust laughed. "It's a good thing I never showed anyone what Alexis looks like. They probably would become smitten over her. She is very attractive. More so since becoming a Transformer, which is still a mystery. Megatron knew, but he never shared it with me."

Once Thrust's damaged was fixed, he stepped out of the contraption and headed off to the control room to soon get his next plan into action and wait for the arrival of Tornado.

-

As the minutes clocked by and turned into hours and then the hours started turning into days, June began to get settled in at the Autobot base. Alexis began to worry though as she hadn't heard from Sandy since the day she left. Sideways had returned her to town and came back saying she was dropped off safely.

"Optimus," Alexis called as she walked into the control room. "Has Sandy contacted?"

Optimus turned to his adopted daughter. "No and I'm beginning to worry for her as well. How's your mother settling in?"

"She's doing fine. Though she seems to be on edge. Maybe it was from the bombing. As every time she hears a bang, she jumps."

"It will take some time for her to get used to the strange sounds." Optimus turned away for moment but then turned back. Not hearing from Sandy was getting to him. "Alexis ask your mother and Red Alert if they can go into town and see if they can find out what's wrong with Sandy."

Alexis slightly grinned. She liked that idea. In fact she was actually going to suggest the idea to Optimus, but he was able to beat her to her the punch. She turned and headed down the hall to Red Alert's lab. To her surprise her mother was there.

"Oh good. I only need to say this once."

Red Alert turned to the female mech warrior. "Alexis, what's up?"

She noted that he was getting used to human slang. "Optimus has asked me to get you two and go into town. We haven't heard from Sandy since she left and we're both getting worried."

"That's unlike Sandy," June said.

"I agree," Red Alert said. He stopped what he was doing and walked over to June and held out his hand for her. "We'll go right now." June climbed into his hand and the walked out.

"June looked up at Red Alert as he walked towards the exit. "So are you attached to anyone?"

"I'm not sure I follow," he said honestly.

June chuckled. "Well my daughter has Starscream, Ironhide has Chromia and Optimus has Elita-1, who I haven't met yet."

"No," he answered her question, finally understanding what she meant. "I once did but she died in battle and I swore I would never attach to another."

"That must be lonely," she admitted. She turned away from him and just watched where he was walking, keeping herself balanced in his hand. "I suppose I can understand. Since Thomas left me, for another woman, I could never get the courage to date again. I had a daughter to raise and it wasn't always easy. Not with the memory of my son."

"That's understandable," he said.

He stopped just outside the entrance to the base and set June to the floor and then transformed. She climbed into the driver's seat and the two then took off down the mountain. As they drove, Red Alert noted June seemed to be holding back something. He did wonder what it was as it could pertain to the safety of the team, but he also knew not to press the woman. She was still recovering from nearly being killed.

They travelled a few minutes after getting off the mountain. Once June was able to remember when Sandy lived, Red Alert was able to stop. The place was eerie quiet. Something Red Alert did not like.

"I don't like it," Red Alert responded. "It's too quiet."

"I agree." June stepped out of Red Alert. "I wonder if anyone is home."

June walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. She heard some shuffling inside but no one came to the door. June rang the doorbell again.

"Go away," a voice whispered.

June recognized the voice as Sandy. "Sandy? It's me June."

"June?" the voice cried. "You don't want to be here, please leave."

"Sandy, I am not leaving," June said sternly. "We are all worried about you."

"And you should be."

"Sandy, open this door." June's voice was filled with instant worry. The teen did not sound like herself and she was whispering.

"I can't."

June's nose wrinkled in frustration. Suddenly she heard another voice.

"Sandy who is at the door?" the male voice demanded.

"No one," she squeaked by then cried out in pain.

June ran to Red Alert. "Something's wrong in there and the door is locked. I think someone is hurting Sandy."

"Go to the door. Take Longarm. He'll get the door opened." Red Alert rushed out in hurried tone.

June nodded. Longarm jumped out of the jeep type truck and went with June to the door. They both could hear more sounds as well as crashing. Longarm slammed his body against the door, breaking it opened. June gasped in horror as Sandy was against the wall with a man towering over her, hitting her.

"What the hell is going on here?!" June demanded.

The man turned. "None of your business!" he snapped.

"June," Sandy pleaed.

"Longarm, get Sandy and get to Red Alert. I'll be right behind you," June said to the little robot. The little robot transformed and drove up to the man. The man didn't know what to make of it. It transformed back, pushing the man away from Sandy. He grabbed Sandy's arm, and tugged her towards the door.

June got a good look at Sandy and she was disgusted. The man who towered over her must have been her father. But June never remembered her father looking or acting like that before. Sandy's face was marked up with bruises and cuts.

The two made it past June and headed for Red Alert. The man hadn't moved yet as he was in shock at what just happened. June turned around and ran as well.

Red Alert saw Sandy and Longarm running towards him. He noticed the markings on her face. "Oh Primus Sandy!" His driver's door opened, letting her get in when she was close enough. She went to the back with Longarm. Once she was in, tears sprang to life. Longarm pulled her to him and hugged her as the teen cried.

Sandy soon jumped in the vehicle by this time, the man was now charging out of the house. He must have finally figured what had happened and now he was fuming.

"Go! Red Alert! Go!" June yelled.

Red Alert didn't need to be told twice. He quickly kicked it into high gear and headed towards the base as fast as the traffic would allow him. He tinted his windows, allowing June the chance to cuddle the injured teen. June pulled Sandy close when she was in the back.

"It's ok," June soothed. "You're safe now."

"It was awful," Sandy cried.

June shushed her. "Don't speak. Just relax. Red Alert and I will take care of you."

While June cuddled Sandy, Red Alert radioed the base. "We're on our way back. And Sir," Red Alert said to Optimus over the comlink. "I know the reason why Sandy hasn't contacted."

"_Why is that?"_

"She has been injured by someone inside the house," Red Alert explained. "We have her now. She's got cuts on her and bruises."

_"I'll have the hallways cleared so you can continue on to the Medical Bay."_

"Thank you, Sir. Red Alert out."

It didn't take Red Alert long to get to the base and even less time to get to the medical bay. June helped the shaking, crying teen out. Once the two humans and Mini-Con were out, Red Alert transformed and gentled grabbed the humans, placing them on the medical table. He told them that he was going to become human so he could treat Sandy's wounds.

Jetfire, Optimus and Alexis came rushing in the room before Red Alert could leave. Once seeing her mother and friend, Alexis felt relieved but also concerned. Her friend was hurt. She offered to stay with her friend while Red Alert did what he needed. Jetfire offered to escort him so Red Alert could get back quicker.

When Red Alert was human and was with the two humans he soon treated Sandy's injuries while June held the girl's hand. Alexis did not like the idea of not being there physically for her friend but she was grateful her mother was there. And with Red Alert being human, it would help Sandy as well. Alexis noticed Jetfire seemed quite concerned as well. She wondered why, unless the Vice Commander was starting to have an attraction towards the teen. That would be interesting to say the least. Alexis in being with a Transformer now her friend was smitten by a human.


	9. First Wedding

**First Wedding**

Once June, Alexis' mother, was settled in, which took everyone longer than they thought, the Autobots were still trying to figure who caused the destruction of June's home. They had their suspicions, but no concrete evidence. It was quite unnerving to them considering every time they thought they would have an answer, it would end up becoming a dead en and they would have to start back at square one. Though to Alexis that wasn't her only problem she had to worry about. She had her Mom and friend to worry about.

Sandy had been abused, that she was able to figure out when her mother took Sandy away from her home, but the teen would not talk about what happened. She was still too horrified to speak of it. The teen would wake in the night to screaming and a Mini-Con would comfort her when she would. There was nothing Alexis was able to do but be there for her friend when she wanted to speak. Even Jetfire was lost.

But as Sandy is suffering, Alexis' mother was forced to also stay at the Autobot base. Alexis was happy to know her mother was safe and close to her, but she knew her mother preferred to live alone. June didn't complain too much. After three years of seeing her daughter as a Transformer, she was finally able to accept what her daughter had become and now could support her.

June was surprised on how much support the Autobots gave her. They had given her, her own private quarters in which she could convert into an apartment like place. And with Sandy staying at the base as well, June had someone to fuss over. June knew Sandy was hiding more than what she had saw in that house that day when her and Red Alert 'rescued' her.

Not long after the fire of June's farm, she was able collect insurance on property with the help of the kids. And with that insurance money she bought all new furniture for her private quarters, which was fashioned out like an apartment. However where there were no windows, the Mini-Cons installed monitors in certain spots that gave a view from around the base. It gave June a sense of peace. Once the furniture was all bought, she insisted Sandy to stay in the quarters with her.

Sandy was taking a walk around the base, looking for Alexis. With all the excitement in the recent months, she had a feeling Alexis totally forgot all about her father's wedding, which was being held the next day. When she finally found her former human friend, the transformer was in the target practice room. Sandy waited until Alexis stopped firing before getting her friend's attention.

The second Alexis had stopped, Alexis yelled out. "Hey Alexis!"

Alexis turned quickly and looked down to see her friend. Sometimes to Alexis, she still felt strange, even after three years, at having to look down to see her friends. It sometimes felt unnerving but her friends didn't complain or make comment.

"What's up?" Alexis asked as she bent down to see her friend better.

"Nothing much," Sandy admitted. "Do you realize what tomorrow is?"

If Alexis was human, she would have blinked, but where she wasn't, she just jerked her back a bit, giving a questionable look. "Saturday…" the transformer said slowly.

"Yes," Sandy said, noting that she was right that her friend had forgotten. "Tomorrow, you have a promise to keep."

"I do?"

"Alexis, don't remember the promise you made where you'll take Starscream to, to see his very first human bonding?"

Alexis gave a perplex look for several minutes before she gasped. "Oh my Primus!" she blurted. "Dad's wedding. And I have nothing to wear for it."

"And neither does Starscream or Red Alert…or are you still taking Red Alert?" Sandy added.

"I think so," Alexis said. "Do you know where Optimus is?"

"He's in his office. Why?" Sandy asked.

Alexis stood back to her height. "I have to ask him something." She rushed out and made her way to her adopted father's office. He had made the office days after he decided he was going to stay on the planet when it was proven that who ever was heading to Earth had slipped past his early warning signals and got to Earth. When she got to the office and she his command to enter, she quickly entered.

"Alexis," he greeted, surprised by her presence. "What brings you here?"

Alexis walked over and hugged the Autobot leader. "I'm so stupid," she whispered as tears threatened to fall.

Optimus stopped what he was doing and hugged his daughter back. "You are not stupid."

"Yes I am," she argued. "I forgot all about my father's wedding and it's tomorrow."

Optimus gasped. "So soon?"

Alexis nodded. "I have nothing to wear for it."

"What time is the wedding?" he asked.

"Tomorrow afternoon at three."

"Well there's time tomorrow for you to go out and buy something nice. Starscream is going too, so he'll need something as well. I would like to go with you for support, but…"

"You're needed here," she stated. She turned to look at him. "Are you sure?"

Optimus' optics gave a soft glow, showing his sincerity in his words. "I'm sure. Your father is expecting you and it will make him question your absence if you're not there. Besides there's enough Autobots here in case of problems."

"Perhaps I should try and go out tonight and look. I'm going to take Red Alert with me. I would feel more comfortable if another Transformer comes with me."

"Don't blame you," he said. "Why don't you go and inform Red Alert and Starscream of tomorrow and then later this evening the three of you can go out and see if there is anything to find."

"But would tonight be too soon?" she asked.

"Listen Alexis," Optimus sighed. "You have permission to go to your father's wedding, which was announced before all this problem started. But I need you three back here as quick as possible. So for the sake of protecting my two best men and daughter, I'm asking for you to go tonight. You do not need to stay at the reception for a long time."

"No, I suppose not," Alexis admitted. "I wouldn't want to stay there the whole night anyway. I'm not even sure if I would want to be there for the reception."

Optimus nodded. "Perhaps your mother and Sandy would like to go out as well. They have been cooped up here for awhile now."

Alexis smiled. "Yeah, I think they would like it." Her smiled soon faded. "Optimus, I wish Sandy would let me know what is wrong. She's been very quiet when it comes to her family."

"Alexis," he sighed again. "She's been hurt. She'll tell us when she's good and ready. Right now it's best to not pressure her. You are her best friend. You just need to be there when she wants you to be."

"Perhaps Sandy could meet one of the female Autobots sometime. Right now she only knows Chormia and me."

"Perhaps," Optimus agreed. "But right now with this new enemy, I'm not sure we can risk it."

Alexis nodded with a lowered head. "It was only an idea."

Optimus walked over to her. He gently lifted her soft chin with a finger. "And it's a good idea," he answered kindly. "Never sell yourself short. Your intentions are good. And before long I will ask Elita to come here."

Alexis gave Optimus a perplex look. "May I ask why?"

"I have been praised by Shockwave of the developments on Cybertron and when this crisis is over, I think I will remain here. The building of Cybertron has continued on without me and I have no idea how long this crisis will last. Therefore when it comes time I think I would rather stay here with my daughter."

Alexis smiled. "I would like that every much."

Optimus smiled and hugged his daughter. "You better get yourself prepared for that wedding tomorrow."

Alexis nodded. She turned and left the office in search of Red Alert and Starscream to inform remind them of the wedding.

-

Arriving at the wedding was not one of Alexis' ideas of fun. When she arrived, she saw some family and old friends who she hadn't seen for quite sometime. True to Optimus' suggestion, Sandy and June went as well, although June wanted to keep a low profile. She did not want to be seen by her ex-husband's family. But she was really curious on how he was doing and what his new wife will look like. June donned on a blond wig to hide her true self. Sandy was wearing nice modesty outfit. She did not like the idea of wearing lesser clothes because she knew Alexis would start asking questions. And they were questions she wasn't ready to speak about. June was wearing a simple green dress.

Starscream and Red Alert, who also accompanied Alexis, were both dressed in nice suits. Starscream was in a burgundy suit and Red Alert was in a blue suit. The day wasn't too hot, but it wasn't too chilly either. Alexis was wearing nice flowery print dress. The wedding was being held in a small church. The reception was to be held down the street.

"Alexandra? Is that you?"

Alexis turned and nearly groaned. There was an older woman in her senior years walking towards her. Starscream gave her an odd look. "Alexis?" he asked.

June turned her head away and walked away from the group. Though she had a wig on, she still didn't feel like being too close to her ex-in-laws.

"She's my grandmother on my Father's side," she said.

"Ah," her mate answered as he turned to the woman who stopped in front of him.

"My goodness you have grown up." The woman gave Alexis a hug.

"Thank you," Alexis said politely. "Grandma, I'd like you to meet my boyfriend Starscream and good friend Red Alert." Alexis turned to see her mother walked off and Sandy followed.

The woman looked at the two men on either side of Alexis. "My those are strange names."

"They are our military call signs, Ma'am," Red Alert answered.

"I see," she said. "Well I'm glad you could have made it Alexandra." She grabbed Alexis' arm and pulled her. "Come see your father."

Alexis stopped her movement, forcing the old woman to stop. "I will in a few minutes," she said. With a move Blurr taught her, Alexis twisted her arm out of the old woman's grip. "Right now I will show my friends to their seat."

Alexis moved away from the older woman. Starscream and Red Alert followed her.

"Alexis," Red Alert said. "You could have gone with her."

"Red Alert," Alexis said. "You know as well as I do, I don't really want to be here right now. More so with the recent problems. Plus with my mother here, I'm very uncomfortable."

"I agree," Starscream nodded. "That woman sounds a little obnoxious."

"You don't know the half of it," June agreed as came up beside them.

Alexis nodded to her mother. "When my Mom and Dad were together, she wasn't fond of Mom. So she would ignore my Mom and give me all the attention and it really bothered me."

"That's understandable," Starscream answered. "It would bother me to no end."

Alexis stopped half way down the aisle. Once she found a good spot, she sat down, giving indication to her party to sit as well. Starscream and Red Alert sat beside her. Red Alert looked up as a man walked over to them.

"Alexis," he said. "Who is that?"

Alexis looked to where Red Alert was looking. She rolled her eyes. "That's my father."

"Alexis," her father smiled, ignoring the two women sitting on the other side of Alexis. "I'm glad you could make it. Who are these gentlemen?"

"This is my boyfriend," Alexis held Starscream's hand. "Starscream and my friend Red Alert. Yes I know strange names they are military call signs."

"I see," he said. He shook his hand to both men. "Well it's a pleasure to meet you." He looked at Alexis again. "I was wondering if I speak to you for a moment in private."

Starscream looked at Alexis and leaned closer to her and whispered into her ear. "Love, I know you don't want to be here, but you did come for good faith."

Alexis nodded and stood up. She made her way past Starscream and Red Alert. She followed her father to the back, which would lead to the bathrooms and other rooms of the church. He continued walking until he stopped.

"What's this about?" she asked when they stopped.

"I want you to meet your step-mother before she walks down the aisle." Her father knocked on the door and the maid of honour answered.

She frowned. "You know you can't see the bride."

"I'm here so my daughter could meet Irene."

Alexis gave a frown. So this was what her father had planned. She did not like the idea of meeting the woman who mother a child and forced her father away.

The maid of honour opened the door a little, allowing Alexis to walk in. Alexis hesitated.

"Go on Alexis," he said.

With a near roll of her eyes, she walked in. The maid of honour closed the door and stood behind Alexis as a woman in a blue gown walked out of the bathroom.

Alexis' eyes widened in shock. The bride was pregnant, very pregnant at that. "You're having another baby?" Alexis said.

The bride looked up and softly smiled. "You must be Alexis. I have heard a lot about you. You are pretty and have your father's eyes."

"How far along are you?" Alexis asked ignoring the comment. She hated the idea of being reminded of her father's eyes. She always hated her eyes. Luckily she no longer had to worry about that now, as her eyes were now optics.

"I'm thirty-five weeks," she answered with a kind voice. "So is Alexis your full name?"

"Only my personal family members calls me by my given name," Alexis retorted. "Excuse me, but my boyfriend is waiting for me."

She turned away and with a walk around the maid of honour, she walked out, seething. Once outside the room, her father smiled. "Well what do you think?"

"You're an ass!" she snapped.

Her father blinked. But before he could ask what she meant, she walked away. Making her own way back to the chapel area, she walked over to the guys. "Let's go."

"Alexis?" Starscream asked with concern noting her angered look.

"My father's new bride is pregnant. I'm about to have a second half sibling. I can't believe he kept this from me. For three years…"

June and Sandy both gasped as Starscream gave a disapproval look.

Red Alert stood up and rested a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Why don't you go outside and cool off. The wedding doesn't start for several more minutes."

Starscream stood up. "I'll go out with you."

The couple walked outside to get some fresh air. Once Alexis walked outside, Alexis felt an onslaught of tears wanting to hit her.

"This is so unfair," she whined.

Starscream pulled her close. "I know it is," he said as softly as he could. "It's harsh to know what has happened. But none of that matters now. You have your mother, me, Optimus and your other adopted members of the family; Hotshot and Sideswipe. We all love you Alexis and that is what should matter."

Alexis returned the embrace and sighed. "Thank you Starscream."

"No prob…"

Alexis looked up as Starscream stopped. "Starscream?"

She could see the dreadful look on his face. She followed his eyes to the sky. At first she saw nothing, but after a closer look she could see three unmarked jets fly by, one looked very familiar.

"No!" she gasped.

"Get inside quick," he lightly commanded. "Red Alert has his communicator."

"What are you going to do?"

"Watch and see what transpires." He looked at her. "Now go. You may be angry with your father right now but now is not the time. We can not allow a panic to happen."

Alexis nodded. She rushed back inside to Red Alert.

"What's wrong?" he asked as he saw the worried look.

"Perhaps trouble," she whispered. "We just saw three unmarked jets."

Alexis companions gave a look of shock. "Are you sure?" June asked.

"Starscream was the enemy for a long time so he would be the one to know best if something was not right," Alexis answered.

In the pocket of his sport coat, Red Alert pulled out Laserbeak and contacted Optimus. Once the medic officer was able to see his commander he told him what Alexis and Starscream just saw.

"Are you sure?" Optimus asked through Laserbeak.

By this time Red Alert was outside beside Starscream watching the jets.

"Yes, Optimus," Starscream said. "One looks like Thrust."

"Thrust?" Optimus blurted out.

Optimus was the only one in the command center when Red Alert contacted but within seconds, Jetfire and Hotshot arrived in the room.

"We better check this out," Jetfire said.

"Agreed," Optimus said. "Hotshot, assemble the others."

"What about the humans?" Hotshot asked.

"Hotshot, that may not matter anymore," Jetfire answered. He knew what the yellow Autobot was asking. "Right now we have to tend to the safety of the town." Jetfire turned to his leader. "Sir, perhaps some of us should remain behind. As you have said before some of us are unable to hide very well in public."

Optimus nodded. "But I want you to remain on stand by in case I need you. Let's get going men. We may have a town to save." Optimus turned back to the communications. "Red Alert. Starscream. Just hang tight. Go back into the wedding. If something is to happen, your job will be to keep those people safe."

"Aye, aye, sir," Red Alert informed. Red Alert looked at Starscream. "There is nothing we can do in this form. We better go inside before the wedding starts."

Starscream growled. "I can't just sit around and do nothing."

Red Alert laid on hand on the human seeker's shoulder. "But that is what we must do. We are human right now. We cannot take on the enemy. Especially if that enemy is a Transformer."

Starscream groaned his agreement. He turned away and went back inside to his girlfriend was really nervous. Red Alert followed. The two sat in their previous positions just as the music began for the wedding to start.

-

Everything was now going according to plan. The one flying was just about to call his leader who was taking up the lead of flying out of the three jets. He was slightly startled when his leader spoke into his audio receptors.

"Were we seen?" the voice snapped.

"Yes," he answered.

"Excellent." The voice said. "It amazes me on how foolish Starscream has gotten since becoming an Autobot."

"Thrust," another voice was heard over the audio receptors. "How do you know it was Starscream?"

"Because his girlfriend has the ability to become human by some sort of means. Whatever that means is Starscream is able to use it to become human as well. I have seen the two together. Little miss Alexis hasn't changed much in the three years since she became an Autobot. But just to be sure…Send me a scan of the person who saw us."

The other two who were flying with Thrust were known as Sonic and Blackfly. The two were random transformed fighter jets on which Thrust had no idea what they were, but he also did not care. One was black and one was grey. They were jets and that is all he wanted.

"I'm sure the Autobots have been notified by now. Once you see the first Autobot, start your strike force. Your strike will give the signal for the others to follow suit."

"Yes sir," the two jets said in unison.

"Continue, fly by," Thrust commanded. His plan was working. He was going to make Optimus pay for his crimes and to do that was to attack the town the Autobots lived in. He had known what Alexis and Starscream looked like in human form for well over a year now. And he was going to use the two to his advantaged. Of course attacking the town wasn't his only agenda. He had full plans on taking prisoners.

He was quite surprised of how many human vehicles were surrounded around a church when they did their first fly by. He guessed it was a sort of human ritual but what he didn't know nor did he care. Humans were revolting and this planet didn't deserve their presence. Thrust didn't care about that either. He was going to take control of this planet and drive a wedge between the alliance of the Decepticons and Autobots.

_Author's Notes: Sonic and Blackfly are my creations. Blackfly is a black fighter jet and Sonic is a grey jet._


	10. No Longer in the Dark

**No Longer in the Dark**

Red Alert and Starscream entered the church and quickly found their way to their seats. They weren't seating long when music began to play. The two male Transformers weren't sure what to do. They were ordered to stay at the church and basically pretend nothing was wrong until the fight started, if it would start. They both were dreading what the outcome was going to be. In their condition they were useless to the rest of the Autobots. Starscream looked at Alexis and saw the worried expression on her face. He looked at Sandy and June and saw similar looks as well. That meant Alexis told them what was going on.

Shortly after the music started, both Starscream and Red Alert followed everyone's eyes to the back where a little flower girl and ring bearer walked down the aisle. Starscream could here a few 'awes' as they walked. He did not understand what the reaction was all about. He would hope to ask Alexis about it later. He looked over to Alexis. From her reaction he deduced that one of the children was her younger sibling and since she had a brother, he guessed it was the little boy carrying a pillow with two rings on it. Alexis wasn't the only who noted the little boy. June also assumed that the boy was her ex-husband's son.

Sandy thought the two were cute. When the two were at the front a lovely lady, the maid of honor walked down. Starscream watched in amazement, sort of forgetting what was about to happen outside, Red Alert on the other hand did no lose focus. When the maid of honor was at the alter, the music tempo changed and everyone stood. Starscream and Red Alert gave a confused look but followed suit.

Soon the bride and her father walked down the aisle. The bride in her nice blue dress, clearly showing she was pregnant, had a radiant smile on her face. As she walked past the human Transformers, Starscream was able to get a clear vision of how big she really was. He had never seen pregnant women before. He gave Alexis a sideways glance and realized that if she wasn't a transformer, she probably could have look a like that one day. Pregnant.

The minister began his speech about the couple when the bride had her hands in her husband to be. At the moment he said to take a moment of silence, a loud sound of a jet flew by the church, causing the building to shake somewhat. The Transformers looked at each other. They knew what that meant. Thrust was attacking.

"Guys get ready," Red Alert whispered. "Our job is to protect these people."

June, Alexis and Sandy nodded.

Outside of the church, where the real action was going to happen, Thrust had decided to do a low flyby trying to get Starscream's attention but the moment he made his flyby, Sonic reported the Autobots were coming. Thrust had laughed evilly.

"Be ready," Thrust instructed. "Let's make the Autobots make the first move shall we."

"The Autobots won't fire while in town," Blackfly said.

"I don't want them to fire," Thrust said. In his voice one could hear he was really enjoying this. "But the Autobots will fall for what I'm about to get them to do."

"And what is that?" Sonic asked.

"Fool!" Thrust barked. "I want them to transform!"

"An excellent idea," Blackfly said.

Thrust watched as Optimus was taking up the lead with Hotshot closely behind. There was a few other Autobots too, but he didn't care about them. He had the one he wanted in his sights.

"Attack!" Thrust yelled.

Sonic and Blackfly suddenly started to fire at the Autobots as they were driving through the town.

"Optimus!" Hotshot yelled.

"I know!" Optimus yelled back.

"We're sitting ducks!" Hoist commented.

"But we can't transform," Blurr added.

"We may have no choice," Optimus said. "Find a way out of town."

Thrust watched as the Autobots started to split up. "Oh no you don't," he said to himself. "Second wave, attack!"

Three more jets came out of nowhere firing upon the Autobots.

In the church the Minister was trying to word out the vows to be said when small explosions started. People began to get really nervous, including the bride. The little boy and girl started to get really scared. Suddenly there was an explosion just outside the church. Everyone screamed and went to the floor.

"They are attacking," Starscream hissed.

"Our top priority is the protection of these people," Red Alert commanded.

"But how?" Sandy asked.

"Is there a basement?" Red Alert asked.

"Yes there is," Sandy answered. "It was built last year."

"Good," Red Alert stated. "June. Sandy. Get the guests to the basement. Alexis you'll be sure that everyone follows. Starscream. You and I will bard the doors so no one will be able to see what is going on."

Sandy nodded and then jumped. "Everyone to the basement!"

People soon started to scramble towards the basement. June jumped up as well and started to help out. Alexis was about to help when she heard a painful moan. She looked up to see her father huddling over his wife to be. She knew something was wrong, from the way the woman had her face contorted into pain.

"Red Alert!" Alexis blurted. "Something's wrong."

Red Alert looked over to where Alexis was pointing and he saw the scene. He knew that wasn't good. Since being on Earth, he had read up on many human medical procedures as possible. He felt it was necessary since the Autobots were sometimes being human. What if one of them got hurt, he was the only one able to assist them.

"Starscream, bard the door to prevent people from getting out, I'm going to check to see what is wrong."

Starscream nodded and continued at his job at barding the door. Red Alert rushed over to the bride and groom and immediately went to doctor mode.

"What happened?" he asked with rush concerned.

"I don't know," Alexis' father panicked. "We fell to the floor and she suddenly started to feel pain."

Alexis ran over to see if she could help. She watched as Red Alert started to feel around the woman to see where she was in pain. She gave a quick whimper when he pushed a little against her belly. Alexis knew exactly what was going on. She didn't have to be completely smart to know.

"My baby," she hissed out.

"Irene," Alexis said as she got closer and took the woman's hand. "I think you've just gone into labor. Red Alert is a doctor."

"No, I can't have it now."

Red Alert looked at Alexis. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"Red Alert, I know the signs when I see them. When she fell, she fell right on her unborn child. The trauma of that fall has probably caused her to go into premature labor."

"Alexis, are you serious?" her father asked.

"Father, right now is not the time to ask questions. Get the little ones to the basement," Alexis commanded.

Irene moaned in pain again. Red Alert removed his sport coat and with Alexis' help got the bride to lay down on her back. He took the sport coat and folded it under the bride's head.

"I don't want to leave Irene," Alexis father protested.

Alexis glared at her father. "Listen, this is serious. Get the children below. Do you think the little boy should be here seeing his mother in pain?"

Alexis' father looked at the children and saw them scared out of their minds. His little son was ready about to burst into tears. A sudden hand laid on his shoulder.

"You should listen to her."

He looked up to the voice. To his shocking surprise, it was someone he didn't think he would see again. "June?"

"It's me," she answered. "Now allow our daughter and her friends do what they need to do."

Alexis' father nodded. He walked over to the small children and took them to the basement. Alexis and Red Alert both breathed a sigh of relief. Neither one liked the idea of her father right there. Things were going to get tough for them and they all knew it. With a fight happening outside, Optimus was going to have no choice but to transform to protect the town.

-

Optimus watched as a gray jet suddenly attacked by the church his daughter was in, blowing up some of the cars that were there. He knew the measures were now desperate. Would he sit there and continue to allow the town his daughter and friends grew up in, be destroyed or will he swallow his pride and fight back for the protection of humanity.

"Optimus!" Hotshot yelled over his comlink. "We have to do something. My sister is in that church."

Optimus thought for a moment longer. And he seen there was only one course of action. "Autobots! Transform and attack!"

Thrust laughed as he watched six of the Autobots transform. "Third wave, attack!"

Another set of jets and ground vehicles suddenly came out of nowhere and transformed.

"The missing Autobots!" Optimus blurted out.

"What?!" Optimus heard over his comlink from Jetfire. "Are you serious?"

"Dead serious," Optimus said. "Thrust made his own team."

"A team of renegades," Thrust answered as he landed in front of Optimus. "You will pay for what you have done."

People in the town began to scream and run when the saw vehicles and jets turn into fifty-foot robots. News media were suddenly swinging their cameras at the robots.

"You see, Optimus," Thrust continued, ignoring the screams. "These renegades are angry with you for signing that treaty. They worked too hard for the fight on Cybertron and you allowed their fighting to go to waist. Poor leadership."

Hotshot growled at Thrust and took a step forward.

"Not another step!" Blackfly yelled. "Or that structure is gone!" Blackfly aimed his weapons at the church.

"What will it be, Optimus?" Thrust laughed. "The protection of this town, saving of your precious humanized daughter or the safety of the Transformers secret? Oh wait that one is scratched out…I guess you only have two choices left."

Back at the base, Jetfire, Blaster, Springer, Powerglide and Scavenger watched the scene unfold. Jetfire couldn't believe what he was hearing or seeing. Members of the Autobot team on Cybertron betrayed the Autobots and are now siding with Thrust.

"We have to do something," Powerglide said.

"Well we are backup," Springer answered. "And the cover is now blown as you can see on TV them reporting what is happening."

"Perhaps we can make our own plan of attack," Blaster offered.

Jetfire turned to the stereo. "Explain."

"Well Thrust planned this attack with three waves," Blaster said. "Perhaps we can do the same. Powerglide, yourself and Springer go out and do some damage control while me and Scavenger bring up the rear."

"That's an idea," Scavenger agreed. "Blaster, you don't normally come up with ideas."

"Well Alexis is in that church. And I'm sure she's not the only one as no one has come out of there," Blaster explained.

"Let's go," Jetfire said. "Blaster, you and Scavenger try and get around the others and see if you can scramble their comlink so they can't coordinate the attacks."

Rest of the Autobots soon scrambled to get to the battle as quick as possible.

Meanwhile Optimus and the others were pinned down by Thrust as one of Thrust's renegades was threatening to fire at the church and while they were dealing with that Red Alert and Alexis were dealing with their own crisis.

"You still haven't given me your answer," Thrust insisted. "You have five seconds to decide."

Optimus growled deeply and clenched his fist. Thrust was such a weasel. The traitoring Decepticon knew Optimus couldn't make a choice.

Hotshot hissed. "You know Optimus can't make that decision!" he yelled.

Thrust gave an evil laugh. "I know that's the beauty of it."

"You…" Sideswipe gasped in anger.

"Thrust!" Optimus yelled. "You're problem is with me. Leave the humans out of this."

"Oh I so wish I could, Optimus Prime," Thrust started, not paying attention that there was a camera crew filming what he was saying and it was being played live on television. "But you see your compassion for an alien race who are nothing compared to the Transformers is sickening. You would risk your life on the protection of this miserable planet and the other Decepticons agreed. I will not stand by and allow Megatron's conquest to rule the universe to completely fall apart. The Decepticons will rule the Universe and the Autobots will be completely destroyed."

A couple of humans were frightened out of their minds were crouched not too far from where Optimus was standing. When the Autobots were forced to transform, they weren't able to move fast enough before coming petrified on the spot. Though they were scared out of their minds, they listened as well.

"Mommy…" a little girl with blond hair said. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," the mother answered quite frightened, holding her daughter quite closely.

Thrust looked down to the noise. "Impertinent pests!" He soon aimed his weapons toward the mother and her young daughter ready to blast them.

Optimus looked to where Thrust was pointing. He gasped in horror. He had to save them. He dove to the ground, just as Thrust fired. Hotshot heard a scream as Optimus dove to the ground.

"Optimus!" he yelled.

Thrust growled as his laser hit Optimus' backside instead. The Autobot leader was able to get to the ground just in time to save the two humans.

"Yes!" Sideswipe whispered as he saw Optimus was able to get to the humans in time.

Optimus looked at the two humans who were now shaking like leaves. "Please," he whispered in pain. "Please, get to safety."

He said in his best, gentlest voice as he could muster through the pain he was feeling in his back. He had a feeling the injury would prevent him from transforming.

The woman trembled, visibly but nodded and slowly backed away. When she was far enough away, she turned and ran as fast as she could. Optimus watched and when she was a good distance away he got back to his feet and faced Thrust, ignoring the pain.

"How dare you go after innocent people," Optimus growled.

"Innocent?" Thrust gave said innocently. "They don't look innocent to me. They look like an infestation to this planet, which I shall purge and name Earth for the value of the Decepticons."

"The Decepticons are now under a peace treaty," Sideswipe yelled.

"They are not true Decepticons," Blackfly snapped.

Out of the corner of Optimus' optic, he could see Scavenger coming up the street from behind the renegades. Of course he wasn't the only one. One of the jets in the air saw Scavenger too.

"Thrust. Watch your back!" The jet yelled in his communicator. But there was nothing and he saw Thrust did not move. "Thrust! Move out of the way!" Again Thrust did not move. "Something is jamming the transmission but what."

No sooner said a small orange and red object came flying out of Scavenger and transformed. Blaster! He was jamming the transmission of the renegades. That meant no renegade could communicate with the other. Scavenger also transformed and slammed himself into Blackfly before the black jet could react.

Optimus sighed in relief as the church was now safe. "Autobots protect the towns people as best are you!" Optimus ordered.

-

Alexis could hear another crash and screams from outside, but she couldn't worry about that. Her current situation was dealing with her father's fiancée who was now in full bloom labor. Once Starscream had the door barded up, he rushed over to Alexis and Red Alert. He gave a worried expression as Red Alert did his best to remain calm and help the woman through her pain. Alexis also did her best to help out as well.

Sandy had offered to remain in the basement to help keep the guests calmed down. June opt to help in the church. Sandy had the two little children huddling against her, nervous and scared. June wanted to remain in the basement but she had a feeling Red Alert was going to need help. When June got back up the stairs he saw the full situation. Of course she wasn't the only one who went back up.

June's arm was grabbed suddenly. She turned to her scared ex-husband.

"What is going on? You know something," he said.

"Now is not the time to ask questions. Your fiancée is just about to have a child and you're standing here wondering what is going on." June retorted back.

He looked over to the small crowd to see his ex-wife was speaking the truth. "Who are they?" he asked as he looked Red Alert, instructing her to breath.

"Very good friends I assure you. I am currently living with them as I lost my home to an attack a few months ago. Now are you going to help me with getting things prepared or are you going to be a jerk about this?"

He glared. "She's going to give birth?"

"Yes and things can go very wrong if something goes wrong," June stated. "Red Alert is a doctor, but he's never delivered a baby before but he's going to have to." June yanked her arm back and rushed to Red Alert and soon started to instruct him on what he was going to have to do.

Alexis watched as Red Alert's face paled at the thought of giving birth. "Red Alert," she said as she placed a hand of him. "We have no choice. If we don't, the baby and her could die and you are a medic. Mom and I will help you. Remember Mom has been in labor before."

"What can I do?" Alexis' father asked as he came up to them.

"Dad. You and Starscream go below and see what you guys can find for blankets, scissors and any other cleaning supplies."

"Cleaning supplies?" Starscream asked.

June looked at Starscream. "It's so we can clean the baby when he or she comes out. Make sure there's a basin of warm water and towels."

"I'm scared," Irene moaned.

Alexis held Irene's hand. Alexis' other hand gently rested against Irene's forehead giving it a gentle caress. "Irene, you are going to have to your best to remain calm. Please trust me. We won't let anything happen to you, I promise. But it would do good to remain calm."

Irene looked at Alexis and saw the truth to her words. She squeezed Alexis' hand and nodded.

Starscream and Alexis' father went to the basement to find what they were going to need. Luckily for them, they had help from some of the other people who had babies before. The two men returned several minutes later with the supplies.

June then instructed where to place it. She then told Alexis to brace Irene up and then instructed for Starscream to stand by with the blanket to give to Red Alert when the baby would come out. June was taking note how close Irene's contractions were coming and she knew the baby was going to be born very soon.

-

Outside the church, the tables had turned slightly. Blackfly had found himself in an arm lock from Scavenger and the green Transformer wasn't going to let go. Blaster was jamming all renegade frequencies so they couldn't communicate with each other, there for they couldn't plan an attack.

Once Blackfly had his body slammed, Thrust turned himself to see what was going on. To his surprise there were more Autobots on the scene and were now taking out his men. Thrust tried to communicate with his men but with no luck. He watched helplessly as the Autobot air traffic injured his men forcing them to leave the scene.

"I think it's for you to leave!" Optimus snapped.

Thrust turned a bit to see three sets of weapons pointing in his direction. "Not until I get what I came for! I still have a few tricks up my sleeve."

"You're outnumbered," Ironhide stated. "And you can't communicate with your men either."

"A minor set back, but I can sure as well take the one thing away from Optimus Prime that is precious to him." Thrust quickly aimed his canons at the church.

"Optimus I will fire at that structure before you can fire yours to disable me. By then my revenge will have been complete. Your precious human daughter is in that building along with her boyfriend and I'm sure her mother is there too."

"How do you know that?" Hotshot snapped as he was one of them aiming his gun at Thrust.

Thrust laughed. "That farm was so an easy target."

Optimus gasped. "You were behind the attack!"

"And all the other attacks. Including the burning school where your daughter's friend made a daring rescue. She's quite the brave young girl. Perhaps she would like to be a Decepticon."

"You leave her out of this!" Optimus roared. Optimus knew Thrust was talking about Sandy.

Blaster saw Thrust was aiming at the church and he had to act fast. Seeing the jet Decepticons were now disposed of with the Ariel bots, Powerglide and Jetfire. Blaster disengaged his jamming frequency. He then focused his power to send out a musical shock wave to knock Thrust off his feet, which worked.

The cone head traitor was knocked off guard and began to fall. Optimus saw that the Decepticon was about to fall on a large structure so he fired a shot at Thrust to blast him in another direction. Thrust felt the pain of the blast and knew he was in trouble. Needing to react quickly, he teleported himself from the spot and reappeared in the air.

"Renegades Retreat!" The renegade jets quickly all warped out of there, Thrust being the last.

Optimus sighed in relief as he allowed the pain of his wound to take over. He faltered to one knee.

"Optimus!" Hotshot yelled.

"I will be alright," Optimus breathed.

Jetfire seeing that his leader was wounded quickly instructed for the other Autobot jets to head back to the base. He was going to go as well. The public already saw some of the Autobots transformed, no need to see any more jets and a shuttle do the same.

Optimus was relieved to know the town was now safe. After several moments, the Autobots noticed no one was coming out of the church as other people of the town began to make their way out of their homes. Optimus knew something was wrong and he had a feeling it had something to do with that explosion that was in the parking lot of the church. But what was wrong inside the church?


	11. Miracles and Shocks

**Miracles and Shocks**

Everything had gone quiet outside, Starscream noted. The battle must have ended. The Autobots won. That was good. But now the Autobots had to worry about the ones inside. Starscream wasn't the only who noticed, June noticed as well. But the sounds of Irene in pain drew their attention to what was at hand. And that was a woman was about to give birth because of the attack.

Red Alert knew it was time. His face paled again as he suddenly demanded for Irene to push. Irene did not want to but Alexis quietly and sternly instructed for her to do so. Therefore that was exactly what Irene did. Red Alert was getting so pale at what he was witnessing. June noticed the medic became silent and was too pale to say anything more. Knowing what the problem was, June picked up where Red Alert left off by yelling over Irene's cries of pain to push and kept on saying it over and over.

Starscream just stood there, stunned as he watched a human life be born. He wasn't able to see exactly what was going on as there was a tablecloth draped over Irene so only Red Alert could see what was going on. To Starscream, that was a good thing from what he had heard from the boys and Alexis, giving birth could be a disgusting visual concept.

"It's coming," Red Alert yelled as he came out of his stunned phase. He was a doctor and witnessing what he was witnessing was quite the sight. Disgusting yes, but a life was being born and he was the first who was going to touch it.

"Keep pushing," Red Alert commanded. "The head is almost out!"

After several more pushes, Red Alert was finally able to grasp the baby and pull the baby out the rest of the way. Irene suddenly stopped pushing and nearly was completely drained, but the sounds of a baby crying stopped her from passing completely out.

As he heard the baby cry, Starscream stepped forward and quickly wrapped the baby up in the blanket he was holding as June cut the cord attached to the belly. Neither Starscream nor Red Alert knew that the cord was but knew it was important to something.

Alexis smiled. "You did it Irene," she said. "You have a baby."

Alexis' father slid down to the floor. He silently asked if he took his daughter's spot. Alexis nodded and the two switched places so he was now supporting is fiancée. "You did good, darling," he whispered as he took a wet cloth and wiped her face from sweat.

Starscream, Red Alert and June quickly went to work and cleaned the baby up. After the baby was cleaned up, the baby was wrapped in a clean piece of linen. Red Alert walked over and knelt to the mother with a smile. "You have a beautiful baby girl," he said gently.

Alexis took a step back as the parents laughed and cried at the miracle. June ran down stairs to the basement to announce the arrival of the new baby. Red Alert also took a step back. He rested a hand on Alexis' shoulder as Starscream wrapped an arm around her waist. His dress shirt was now ruined from the birth, but that didn't matter to him.

"We brought a new life into the world," Red Alert said quietly. "I don't believe it."

"Bringing a new life into the world is always amazing," Alexis sighed as she leaned against Starscream, who was directly behind her.

"The fighting has stopped," Starscream said, bringing the three back to what started all this.

Alexis gasped. "We better tell Optimus."

Starscream nodded and moved away to unbard the door. He rushed outside to see the Autobots in robot form. This wasn't good.

"What's going on?" he asked gruffly.

Ironhide turned to the human seeker. He was just outside the church putting out the fire of the exploded cars. "Thrust forced as to reveal ourselves. We're no longer in the dark."

"Not good," Starscream answered.

Alexis ran outside to stand outside with Starscream. She looked around and cursed a word that she didn't normally say. Starscream looked at her with an odd look. She had never spoke that word before, or at least not in his presence.

"Optimus!" Alexis yelled once she finally spotted her adopted father. "We need an ambulance!"

"What's the alert?" Ironhide asked.

"My father's almost wife, the wedding was interrupted," Alexis explained. "Was pregnant and she just went into premature labor. Red Alert just delivered the baby."

Optimus heard what his daughter yelled out to him. But he was in his own predicament and he didn't want his daughter to see what that was. He was injured and he knew there was nothing that was going to be done until Red Alert could be a transformer again and that wouldn't be for another three more hours.

Beside him, he heard Hotshot patch into 911 communications and called for human backup. The Autobots were going to have a lot to answer for but that was the least of Optimus' concern at the moment. His main concern was to know if anyone was hurt.

Optimus noted that the backup wasn't too far behind as within moments after Hotshot made his call, the fire trucks, ambulance and police cars made their way on the scene. They all parked themselves in front of the church where the most damage was. Optimus was able to note people were beginning to exit the church and loud screams were heard from the ones who exited.

"Here we go," Optimus groaned as he crouched to the ground. His wounds were really bothering him.

"Sir," Scavenger came up. "Perhaps you should head back to the base."

"No," Optimus said stubbornly. "We have questions to answer."

"But sir," Jetfire said through the comlink. "There are plenty of Autobots on the scene who can help with the answers. Not to mention Alexis, Starscream and Red Alert."

"I'm the leader," Optimus stated to both Scavenger and Jetfire. "I must properly introduce ourselves before they get the wrong conclusion."

Jetfire sighed. He knew his commander was correct. "I will be on stand by for when you do come back."

"Thank you. Optimus out."

"What the devil is going on?" a police chief suddenly yelled out.

The woman that Optimus saved suddenly ran out into the streets. "These giant robots saved my life and my daughter's," she yelled at him.

"From what?" he asked.

"Another giant robot who was trying to hurt us," the woman rushed out. "He even had that church be aimed at and was trying to make that one," she pointed to Optimus, "To surrender."

"You got a voucher," Hotshot whispered to Optimus.

"That's a good thing," Scavenger mumbled.

Optimus slowly nodded but stayed where he was. The less movement he made the less the pain felt.

-

Inside the church, Sandy and June were slowly helping people out of the church when they saw the ambulance arrive. Red Alert stepped outside to only have June push past him to the paramedics to inform them of the birth. The paramedics quickly rushed in to assess the mother and baby.

One paramedic went up to Red Alert, after they were able to secure the new mother and baby. "I hear you delivered the baby."

Red Alert nodded. "I did."

"Was there any complications?" he asked.

"No. There could have been but the fighting outside stopped and it helped the procedures run more smoothly."

"What caused the premature labor? She was only eight months."

"There was an explosion in the parking lot and it caused everyone in the church to duck for cover. I would presume when she ducked, she fell on the baby."

"And it caused trauma…I see," the medic answered. "Can I have your name please?"

"Red Alert and I am with those giant robots."

The medic looked over at the giant robots as Optimus was meeting the chief of police. "I see," he answered finally.

Alexis' father was the last to exit the church as his fiancée and newborn daughter was wheeled out in a gurney. He stopped just behind Red Alert. He hated the idea that he couldn't travel with his fiancée and daughter, but they had to get her to the hospital as quick as possible to be sure everything was fine. He looked up and gasped.

"What the hell?!" he snapped.

Alexis, June, Sandy, Red Alert and Starscream suddenly cringed at the sound. They turned to the man to see he was looking at his ex-wife and daughter to the robots. "What is going on?"

"Thomas," June said. "You need to remain calm."

"This is what caused my wedding to be destroyed and my daughter be born prematurely!" he fumed.

"Yes," June said. "But…"

"No, buts," he protested. "I want the truth."

The medic saw that this conversation was out of his hands. He turned away and finished doing his job. Though he was in a state of shock at seeing the robots, the woman and her baby had to come first. The ambulance carrying the newborn and her mother were soon heading off to the hospital.

"June, I want an answer," Thomas demanded.

Sandy walked away, not wanting to be a part of that conversation. Alexis also didn't want to be but the way her father was looking at her, was saying things she didn't want to hear.

"You wanted the answer!" Alexis yelled suddenly, drawing all attention to her. "Fine. These are the Autobots and they just saved the stinking town. That is what's going on. From the looks of that exploded parking lot," she pointed. "They just protected this church and your new born daughter!"

Alexis was fuming so much that she decided to walk down the steps to the street. She could hear Kiaudica trying to calm her down in her mind. She stopped when she reached half way across the street and turned back to her father. "And you know what else is the truth. I have known…."

Suddenly Alexis couldn't finish her line as something grabbed her and she was boosted into the air. Alexis let out a major shriek, getting the Autobots attention.

"Thrust!" Optimus growled. He knew the traitor was the only one who could swoop down invisible and then take off into the air.

His suspiciousness were answered quickly enough as the thought Decepticon suddenly appeared.

"You are a fool Optimus Prime!" Thrust laughed. "And so are you," he said to Alexis.

"Let her go!" Starscream yelled.

"Not a chance traitor," Thrust said to Starscream. "She's part of this and it will end."

-

Demolisher and Cyclonus had remained at the base through out the entire fight. They didn't want Thrust to learn they were on the Autobot side quite just yet. But they now may have no choice. They had watched on the screen in the command room as Alexis was swooped into the air. Of course they weren't the only ones. Jetfire and Sideways also saw it as well.

"Damn it," Jetfire hissed. "He's got Alexis."

"We have to do something," Demolisher said. "She's the one who mainly helped everyone to sign the treaty between the Autobots and the Decepticons."

"I agree," Sideways said. "And she was the one who also convinced Megatron that Thrust was betraying him."

"Well that wasn't all her doing," Jetfire said.

"Convincing Megatron that Thrust was always telling Megatron what to do was a good leeway to finding out Thrust was betraying him," Sideways said.

"Only because you convinced Thrust to do it," Cyclonus added.

"Let's not go there again," Sideways said. "You know for a fact I thought I was a spawn of Unicron. And in reality, Thrust was planning on overthrowing Megatron for a very long time. It was just Unicron who helped to reveal that goal."

"Does it matter," Demolisher stated impatiently. "He's got her right now. And he could teleport her away really quick if we don't act."

"Agreed." Jetfire turned to the copter and tank. "Go."

The two Decepticons nodded and scrambled out of the command room.

-

Alexis was trying to pull herself from his grip, but she found she was useless. If she was her normal size, it wouldn't be so bad, but she was puny and he could break very bone in her body. She did not want to think what it would do to her. She could hear Kiaudica in her mind, demanding her to remain calm. Just like she did during the whole episode by helping with a birth.

"Let me go you creep!" she demanded, knowing that wasn't going to do anything.

Thrust put a slight squeeze on her. "I don't think so," he said.

Alexis felt the pressure in her ribs and she suddenly stopped moving.

"That's a good girl," he said.

"Let her go Thrust!" Optimus demanded. "This is between you and me."

"Think again old timer," Thrust taunted. "You and her are going to pay."

The moment Blaster stopped his jamming frequency, Thrust radioed two of his men to return and to keep on the look out for any other Autobots who might try to do a daring rescue. Thrust had actually stayed on the scene, but remained invisible to prevent Blaster from jamming him. Once two of his warriors were within range, he went in for the second part of his plan. Everything was going according to plan, though there were some minor setbacks.

Everyone watched in horror was Thrust taunted Optimus with Alexis. With Thrust's other hand, he removed his faceplate and for the first time, all Autobots finally got to see the evil smile of the renegade Decepticon.

"Well I suppose I could drop her." To prove his point, Thrust released his grip on Alexis and slightly let her out of his hand, but then stopped and gripped her dress instead. Alexis was now dangling a hundred feet in the air, only thing holding her up was her dress.

Alexis began to feel faint. She knew a drop at that height would kill her. She also felt sick too.

"Alexis!" June yelled in terror.

Red Alert quickly held her back from trying to run to try and aide her daughter.

Thomas also watched in horror as his daughter dangled like a rag doll.

While everyone watched, two renegades were on the look out, facing the Autobot base. They were several thousand feet from what Thrust was doing. They could hear Thrust speak but could not hear any human screams or shouts. They were floating in mid air a hundred higher than Thrust, wanting to stay out of range of the Autobots. As they watched, they decided to start a conversation.

"You have any idea what he wants with the human and Optimus?" one asked. He was red and green and had an Autobot symbol on his chest. He transformed into a jet.

"Not one clue," the other one answered who was a dark purple Decepticon jet. "I can't see the point of it either. She's a human, what is the point of her?"

"Didn't you know?" the Autobot renegade asked. "She is not a human anymore. She's the Transformer now who was once a human."

"She's Alexis? Starscream's brat?"

"That's the one."

"It's still stupid. First Megatron wanted her. Starscream got her and now Thrust wants her. What's next?"

"Well Megatron wanted her for what Starscream has her for. Thrust just wants to kill her," the Autobot renegade defended. "For a Decepticon, you sure don't like to speak highly of our leader."

The Decepticon renegade turned to his partner. "What was that?" he showed a fist.

The Autobot renegade turned to his partner. "You heard me. If you're going to be a renegade, shouldn't you at least give our leader the respect?"

"Respect?" the Decepticon retorted. "He doesn't deserve respect. He betrayed the Decepticons."

"They why did you join the renegades?"

"The same reason as you, to end the treaty."

"That's not why I joined."

"Could have fooled me."

The two continued to argue, not paying attention as helicopter left the Autobot base with another Transformer in his hands. Seeing the two where they were, Cyclonus quickly went up further into air and placed himself in stealth mode a new function that Red Alert had recently installed. Once he saw he was far enough away from the two standing guard, Cyclonus began to look for Thrust.

-

Thrust was pleased with himself, he had everyone on a standstill while dangling Alexis. Alexis had lost consciousness not even Kiaudica was conscious for she felt the fear as well. Starscream was worried nuts about her as Sandy held him down. Red Alert still had a hold of June. The other police officers and fire fighters were scared stiff on what was being transpired. The Autobots themselves fared no better as they clenched their fists and waited. Waited for what was their question.

"Now Optimus," Thrust said. "You will surrender and end the peace treaty or she will only be a memory in your memory banks."

Optimus did not know what to say. His daughter was endanger. He stood up finally and held his arms out. He wasn't going to risk Alexis' life though he had a gut feeling her life was on the line as well. His arms stood straight out at his sides, showing his surrender.

"I'm glad you finally see it my…"

"Not today cone head!"

"What?!" Thrust looked up just time to see Demolisher fall from the sky and land on top on him. The jolt caused Alexis' dress to rip from Thrust's finger and she began to free-fall.

"Alllllexissssssss!" Optimus, Starscream and June shouted all at once.

She did not fall far before a Helicopter came out of nowhere, transformed into a robot, grabbed her and then transformed back, holding her gently but securely. Once the copter had Alexis he flew towards the ground, before transforming again in front of Optimus.

Meanwhile Thrust was now freefalling as Demolisher threw him off guard. The Autobots could hear some curses coming from Thrust and before long the jet vanished causing Demolisher to now be the only one to freefall.

Cyclonus carefully handed the unconscious Alexis to Optimus before transforming once again and caught Demolisher. The two then slowly descended to the ground. Once Demolisher made touchdown with his feet, Cyclonus again transformed to bot mode.

Everyone around suddenly were cheering in relief and thanks as Alexis was saved and at the daring . Starscream and June both ran to the Autobots as Optimus slowly lowered her again ignoring his pain. Starscream was the first to reach her. The moment Alexis was out of his hands; Optimus fell to his knees in complete pain.

"Alexis," Starscream rushed out as he lightly kissed her face. "Please, be alright."

Alexis' eyes stirred and opened. "Starscream," she said softly. "We're safe."

Starscream nodded, noting the voice was belonging to Kiaudica. "Where's Alexis?" he asked.

"Still unconscious, but fine. I can feel her heart beat beating with my spark."

Starscream hugged Alexis. "Thank you for being safe."

June was a little confused at what her daughter was saying but thought it better to wait and ask later when they were at the base. Soon Thomas came running over.

"You know these things?" Thomas stated after seeing his daughter was ok.

June looked at her ex-husband. "Yes. Alexis and I live with them."

"I won't stand for this," Thomas stated suddenly.

Starscream looked at the father. "You have no choice in the matter," he said gruffly. "To Alexis you abandoned her when she needed you the most." Starscream picked up Alexis, as Kiauadica pretended to still be faint. He looked up at his leader.

"Optimus I'm going to return to base."

"Good idea," Optimus breathed. "Hotshot. Take Starscream and Alexis back to base."

"Sir," Red Alert said. "I will go with Hotshot."

Optimus nodded. "Sideswipe. Take June and Sandy. The rest of you, I need help back to base."

"So you are more injured than you are taking credit for," Red Alert said as Sideswipe and Hotshot transformed.

"I am," Optimus said.

"I would like to help, if I can," the chief of police said.

"Thank you," Optimus said. "But my men can handle it. There are already some my men waiting for me at the base."

The chief of police nodded and then got all his officers to back everyone up to allow the Transformers to move. The humans watched as two cars rushed away and the other bots helped the injured one back to base. They were completely amazed, frightened and shocked at the revelation.

The Autobots were a bit worried themselves. They wondered what the people would think after everything set in. The Autobots couldn't pay for the damages that had happened and they sure as heck could not really help the humans as they had their own problems to deal with. One thing they did know it was Thrust who had been attacking. And it was Thrust who was leading the renegade Transformers.

Now that they knew who the enemy was, they now could more prepare for the next attack and one thing Optimus knew he had to do. He was going to have to call for backup. Thrust had a whole group of renegades. How many, he did not know. But he knew the renegades were Autobots and Decepticons and he assumed it was because they were men against the treaty. He knew of some Autobots who did not like the treaty but didn't think they were betray him.


	12. Questioning Results

**Questioning Results**

Fleeing the scene was his only course of action. How did Cyclonus and Demolisher slip past his defenses? That was a mystery. Everything was going according to plan when those two former Decepticons arrived. They weren't even fit to be called Decepticons. They were buffoons to the cause and where they were now working with Optimus Prime it made things worse. What did Megatron ever see in those two, he would never know. All he knew was he lost his target. Alexis.

As he flew away from the scene, he was quickly able to see how Cyclonus and Demolisher were able to slip past the defenses. Two of his warriors were arguing between each other. One was an Autobot traitor and the other was a pure Decepticon.

"You idiots!" Thrust yelled as he transformed and stopped in front of them. He was now wearing his faceplate once again.

"Boss!" the Decepticon blurted. "What happened?"

"You, you stupid morons. I told you to monitor the Autobot base and you failed!"

The Autobot traitor looked at Thrust. "Failed?"

"Yes!" Thrust yelled. "Somehow Cyclonus and Demolisher snuck past you and were able to attack me. And you know how they got by. You two were fighting!"

The Decepticon and Autobot looked at each other and couldn't come up with an explanation. They knew immediately they were in the wrong.

"Now get back to base!" Thrust seethed. He pushed something on his arm and the three warped out.

Though as they warped out, their signal had caught the attention of one the Autobots at the base. Silverbolt, leader of the Aerialbots, was checking the skies around the town to be sure there were no other Decepticons in the area as the other Autobots began their travels back to base.

He had seen something while on his scans. He pulled back to it and could see two Decepticon Renegades and Thrust warp out. "So you guys were watching the base," Silverbolt mumbled to himself.

"You have anything to report?" Jetfire asked as he walked in.

"I just saw Thrust and two of his men warp out. I would say two of his men were standing guard."

"If they were standing guard," Jetfire started. "They how did Cyclonus and Demolisher get past them?"

"I do not have an answer," the Aerialbot leader answered. "But I can tell you one of the renegades was an Autobot and the other was a Decepticon."

"So it's true," Jetfire turned. "Some of our men have betrayed us. I can't believe this. Any other Renegades?"

"Negative," Silverbolt replied.

"Good. I'm going to need you. Optimus is damaged, he can't transform. There's still three hours before Red Alert will be back to his normal self so we're going to have to try and stabilize him."

Silverbolt turned off the monitor and turned to walk with his Vice Commander to the main entrance of the base to wait the arrival of their comrades. Silverbolt wasn't waiting long when Hotshot came driving up the mountain with an unconscious Alexis, Red Alert and Starscream. Sideswipe was behind him with June and Sandy.

The Autobots who stood at the entrance stood out of the way as Hotshot and Sideswipe drove by. The two didn't stop. They continued driving until they reached medical bay. Where they allowed their passengers to get out and they transformed.

The other Autobots had followed shortly after them, but transformed as they reach the entrance to the base. The last to arrive was the ones who were helping Optimus back to the base. And even they continued to the medical bay and laid Optimus on the med table.

Starscream had laid Alexis down gently on a human med bed as June and Sandy stood around. Starscream was holding Alexis' hand while her mother rested a hand on her daughter's forehead. Sandy just stood by and watched. Red Alert meanwhile, knew Alexis was physically all right, but his concern was for his leader. He had seen the wound in his leader's back and it bugged him.

Red Alert got Hotshot and Sideswipe to help with what they could to prepare to check on Optimus when the leader got to the med bay. When Optimus finally arrived in the medical bay, Red Alert got Hotshot and Sideswipe to assess the damages as much as possible. Mostly they were to inform Red Alert where their leader was damaged. This way when Red Alert was able to be his normal self again, he would be able to quickly set to work.

Shortly after Optimus arrived, Starscream became heavily relieved. Alexis was waking up.

"What happened?" she moaned as she tried to open her eyes but the bright light was preventing her.

"Cyclonus and Demolisher came to the rescue," Starscream said with loving concern. He was gently rubbing her hand. "We're now at the base."

"I was so scared," she admitted.

"I know you were," he answered back. "I was to. I don't know what I would have done, if I lost you."

"Alexis, honey," June said. "We are all safe."

"Mom," Alexis whimpered.

June allowed a couple tears fall from her eyes. "I'm here and so is Sandy."

"Optimus?" she called out forcing her eyes to open.

"I'm…here," the Autobot leader managed.

Alexis turned her head to see her leader and father looking straight at her.

"Blurr," Red Alert said from another part of the room. "It might be best for Alexis and Starscream to be at their quarters. In a couple hours they will be back to their normal selves."

Blurr nodded and picked up the couple. June and Sandy were about to protest when Red Alert walked over to them both. "It's for the best," he said. "Why don't you two go and get cleaned up?"

Both Sandy and June looked at each other and nearly gave each other disgusted looks. They were a mess. Red Alert faired no better but he wasn't worried of his looks. He watched as the two women left the medical bay.

-

Once arriving at their secret location, Thrust had grabbed both of his men, who fumbled up his plans by allowing Demolisher and Cyclonus arrive on the scene, and slammed them both against a stonewall, causing it to crack. All the other Renegades were in the room as well.

The two Renegades groaned as they tried to regain their senses from being thrown.

"I ask for one simple little task," Thrust fumed. "Watch the Autobot base! That wasn't so hard. But you two turned around and started to bicker between each other for something I don't even want to know. And from that my plan had failed."

"Perhaps you need some extra help."

Thrust quickly snapped around to see a shadowy figure enter the old structure. "Who are you?" he snapped.

A Figure stepped into the light, with her arms slightly raised up. "What you don't recognize me?"

"Tornado!" one of the Decepticon Renegades blurted. "You're supposed to be dead."

There stood before the Renegades was deep purple and black female Decepticon with the Decepticon logo in the center of her chest. She was one Decepticon that not many Decepticons would defy nor back talk.

"Dead?" she smirked. "That is a complete exaggeration."

"What do you want?" Thrust demanded.

She walked further into the room and stopped just a few feet from Thrust. "Why Thrust, I figured your first question would have been 'how did I get past your defenses?"

"Don't try my patience," he sneered. "You might have been in good graces with Megatron once, but I will not make the same mistake as he had done. I do not nor will I ever trust you. You are quite the virus."

Tornado chuckled. "Yes, well a girl has to have her talents. And persuading Megatron has been one of my best. I watched your fight earlier and I must say, you must want that human girl badly."

"She's not a human." Thrust growled.

"She looked human to me."

"That's because she was at that the time. She is now a full Transformer and she has a sample of the pool of transformation in her possession. She and the other Autobots can become human for 24 hours."

"And makes her so special?" Tornado asked as she turned away and walked over to the two Renegades on the floor.

"She was the main key to Megatron's destruction and convinced everyone to sign a treaty."

Tornado turned back to Thrust, giving an angered expression. "Are you telling me that human you were after is 'the' Alexis? Mate to Starscream and is someone who Megatron wanted?"

"That is the very one," Thrust agreed. "Megatron was a fool in wanting her. Starscream is a bigger fool for betraying the Decepticons."

"All the Decepticons who agree to the treaty are fools," Tornado said. "And we will extract our revenge."

Thrust gave a silent nod. He wondered what Tornado's plan was. She normally would never do anything unless it could benefit herself. He was going to have to keep an eye on her.

"So how did you get in here?" Thrust finally asked.

"It doesn't take a genius to sneak in when you do have a cloaking device built into your system," Tornado smirked. "You yourself should know that Thrust."

Thrust cursed under his breath. He should have remembered Tornado had the same ability as him. One could almost say she was a sister to him, but their systems were actually totally different. She was a triple changer that could transform into a car and a small fighter plane.

Tornado was satisfied that she silenced Thrust. "Now what shall be your next course of action, considering you have revealed yourself to the Autobots and forced the Autobots to reveal themselves to the world?"

Thrust turned away and walked further into the base. He really didn't want to talk to her anymore. He was now at a loss for a plan B. He wanted Alexis and he was going to need to figure another way to get her.

-

When Optimus was completely repaired, he walked into the Command Center. Not to his surprise he saw Jetfire was watching something on the news. He knew it was about the ruined wedding and how the Autobots were forced to reveal themselves. Optimus didn't know what to do now.

"Jetfire, report," Optimus called.

Jetfire turned to his leader. "I don't know if this is a good sign or not. But the battle is all over the news and practically being broadcasted on all frequencies."

Optimus sighed. "Then it's a good bet that the whole world will know about us now."

"That's a good bet," Jetfire agreed. "Optimus, this could get ugly."

"I know and what's worse Thrust nearly grabbed my daughter. I have to deal with that as well. Where is she?"

"With the one person who fusses over her more than you or her mother," Jetfire joked.

Optimus smirked behind his faceplate. "He's good for her. I'm glad someone is with her. I would like to see for myself that she's safe but I can't deal with that right now."

"Optimus," Jetfire said, turning fully around. "You should go and see her. You watched just as we all did as she could have been killed."

"Jetfire, leading the Autobots is top priority."

Jetfire rested a hand on his leader's shoulder. "So is feeling relieved. There is really isn't anything you can do right now that the others can't. Go and see Alexis. I'm sure she would be relieved to know you are fixed and back up and running. She's worried about you."

Optimus sighed again and lowered his head. "You win," he replied quietly. "I will go and see her. Do you know where exactly she is?"

"The last I saw her, she was watching the sunrise with Starscream."

Optimus turned and walked out and made his way to the exterior of the base where he knew where to find Alexis and Starscream. When he reached them, he could see they were cuddling in each other's arms. He quietly cleared his throat, letting them know they weren't alone.

Alexis was the first to turn around. She gasped and swiftly jumped to her feet. "Optimus!"

Starscream turned around long enough to see Alexis run to the Autobot leader and wrapped her arms around him. He stood up and gave a relieved smile the Autobot leader was ok.

"I'm glad you're ok," Starscream said.

"I was so worried," Alexis nearly cried out.

"I know," Optimus answered as he hugged her back. "Are you alright?"

Alexis looked up. "Yes, still a little shaken up from falling at a high altitude. Kiaudica did her best to keep me calm through the whole thing, including helping my little half sister come into the world."

"I'm glad," he answered. "Have you two heard anything on the TV about the attack?"

"That's it been all over the news all night?" Starscream asked. "They keep saying the same report over and over again. What are we to do now?"

"I don't know," Optimus admitted.

Alexis pulled out of the embrace. "We need to prove to the town that we are the good guys. But we also need to prove on which are the bad guys."

"That could prove to be difficult," Starscream stated. "There are some Renegades who are originally Autobots."

"Yes, I saw that," Optimus said. "We will have to be careful and we will have to inform everyone who we are."

"Optimus," Alexis said. "That may not be as easy as you think. There is a whole planet of Transformers who will come off and on, once the planet is restored to its former glory."

"Alexis has a point," Starscream said as he walked closer. "We could really have a problem on our hands."

"But we need to deal with Thrust as well," Optimus said. "I'm sure there will be at least some humans who will see reason and perhaps even helps us. I have asked for some backup. We're going to need help on this."

Starscream nodded. "Who have you asked for?"

"Your brothers for one," Optimus said. "You, Cyclonus and Demolisher are the only ones will good knowledge of the other Decepticon Renegades. I need more men with the expertise of Decepticon behavior."

"That's a good idea," Starscream suggested. "I will assist as best as I possibly can. I did recognize Blackfly and Sonic during the fight. I'm sure Thundercracker and Skywarp will also remember them."

"Good," Optimus said. He pulled Alexis to him for one last embrace before turning away and leaving the couple alone.

When it was the two of them again, Alexis turned and wrapped her arms around Starscream, showing her worry. "What are we to do?" she asked.

"The best we can do," he answered. "That's all we can do. There was that human woman and child, Optimus saved. So there are at least two humans on our side. And I think the Chief of Police is as well."

"I'm more worried about my father," she whimpered. "From what Red Alert and you tell me, my Dad was not impress with my involvement. And what will he do if he learns that I am not human anymore?"

"Alexandra," he said quietly. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Right now lets worry about the media circus that is bound to arrive sooner or later and many questions Optimus will have to answer. You, myself and Red Alert may have to go human again to help answer questions and reassure the public that our group are not going to hurt anyone."

"That's still not going to stop me from worrying about what my father will say or do if he were to find out that I'm not human and that a Transformer spark living within me is what cause me to change. Not to mention the rock you gave me, which counter Kiaudica's spark."

"Alexis, let's worry about that when the time comes. We need to figure out why Thrust tried to nab you. He wants you and Optimus for some reason."

Alexis pushed herself out of Starscream's embrace and walked to the edge of the cliff, thinking. What happened at the wedding with having to deliver a baby and with the ambush attack, injuring Optimus and forcing the Autobots to reveal themselves to the public, Alexis completely forgot about why she had a near death experience. Thrust wanted her. But why?

As she thought, she was thinking of all the times she had been face to face with Thrust, starting with the day the boys and her tried to hide the Requim Mini-Cons, when she was still completely human and oblivious to Kiaudica. Of course that was before Starscream came into the picture as well. Her memory switched to when she noticed how often Thrust would nearly tell Megatron what to do and she tried to point that out to Megatron, which eventually he did see. Of course she also remembered when the both factions learnt he was working with Unicron and he was betraying the Decepticons…

That was it!

"I got it!" she blurted after nearly twenty minutes of silent thinking.

"What's it?" Starscream asked.

Alexis turned to her mate. "What Thrust is after. He must blame me and Optimus for Megatron's downfall."

Starscream thought for a moment. "That is plausible," he finally agreed. "So we'll have to be extra careful with you and Optimus when in public. Thrust could try and go after you again."

Alexis snorted. "I'm sure. Let's head back in. I would like to see how my mother is doing. She seemed to be tired as of lately and it has me a bit worried."

Starscream draped an arm around his mate's shoulders. "I wouldn't worry about that too much. She might be tired from losing her farm and now having to face the public."

The two walked into the base. They knew the Autobots still had something huge to face with the public, but at least Alexis could let her adopted father know her theory of why Thrust was after her and him. She knew it would not settle the Autobot leader's spark, but at least it would give him some closure to some questions. But there was one question that would remain. How to stop Thrust?


	13. Confidential

**Confidential**

Being in the position as she was, Sandy didn't know what to do or say. The Autobots were now discovered thanks to Thrust, a villain the Autobots knew of from three years ago. But that wasn't completely the story, her best friend turned Autobot was in her own dilemma. The femme Autobot was struggling against her family. Her father was back in her life, sort of, her mother had become homeless and was now staying with the Autobots and now Alexis was worried on what her father was going to think of the Autobots. But of course Sandy even had her own problems to deal with.

Since the day June and Red Alert had picked her up from her parents' home, Sandy had kept quiet about what had happened. That was a subject she did not want to talk about. She knew everyone knew Sandy was abused, but what was the extent of that abuse, Sandy would not say. She hated to think about it and sometimes would wake in the middle of the night from having nightmares.

She hated the nightmares but once waking up, she would see that was all it was, a nightmare. She would find herself safe in a comfortable bed, in human quarters at the Autobot base. It was comforting for her to know she was safe at last. She never told anyone of her dreams but now she thought perhaps now was the time. Her dreams kept plaguing her more and more since that day when the Autobots were discovered and now there were more Autobots on the way and they would be arriving soon.

She didn't know who to speak with, but she knew she had to speak with someone. Someone who was not that close to her yet. Everyone at the base was too close to the situation, including Optimus. Sandy did not want to bother Optimus as he had troubles of his own to deal with.

As she exited her room, she was met by June and a Mini-Con she had chosen. The Autobots had insisted that she and June would take a Mini-Con for protection. Sandy had yet to choose one.

"Where are you heading to?" Sandy asked.

"The gate room," June replied. "The others will be here soon. Alexis told me that whenever there's new Autobots arriving they would all go and greet them."

"I was thinking the same thing," Sandy agreed. "I hear Optimus' girlfriend is coming. It will be nice to see another female Autobot besides Chromia and Alexis."

"Yes, it will be. I am looking forward to meeting Elita-One. From what Alexis has told me about her, she is really nice."

"When did Alexis meet her?"

"Right when the great battle with Unicron was over, but shortly afterwards Elita had to leave again for Cybertron."

The two girls walked to the gate room and once they got there, to their surprise the boys were there as well.

"Fancy meeting you here," Sandy called to Rad.

"Likewise," Rad said. "Man oh man, my parents ever hounding me down with questions about the Autobots."

"I bet, Alexis was shown on TV," June said. "Have you boys also got the twenty question scenario?"

"My parents don't really care much," Billy answered.

"You're lucky," Fred slightly whined. "They have given me more than the twenty question routine. It's more like hundred."

"Yeah mine too," Carlos agreed.

"Mom," Alexis said as she walked into the room and bent down. "Perhaps, we should do some crowd control, especially you. Even Sandy could help out."

"What can I do?" Sandy asked.

"Sandy, you're staying here with the Autobots. So your input on what it's like to live with 50 feet giant robots will help ease the parents."

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea," Sandy said. "I could run into my parents. And I really don't want to face them."

Alexis looked at her friend with worry. What was her friend hiding? Her attention was suddenly drawn away as Red Alert shouted out.

"Warp gate is being activated!" he called.

The Autobots stood and watched as the gate opened up, when it closed five more Autobots were standing in the middle of the room. Hot Rod, Arcee, Elita-One and two others Alexis didn't know.

"Welcome to Earth," Optimus greeted.

"It's good to be here," Hot Rod replied.

"Everyone, may I introduce you to Alexis," Optimus said, pointing to his daughter.

The two new Autobots smiled at her.

"I'm Mudflap."

"Skids. And we're known as twins."

"Foolish at times too," Arcee added.

"It's nice to meet you two," Alexis smile. "These are my friends and family; my mom, June, Sandy, Rad Carlos, Fred and Billy. I used to be like them."

Mudflap walked over to the former human. "I'm sorry to hear what happened to you."

"Thank you," Alexis nodded.

"Autobots!" Optimus commanded. "We have a serious situation to deal with. You were only quickly briefed on it."

Elita knew this was not the time to greet her mate as she could see the serious set in his optics. "We're at your command Optimus," she said.

"Thrust is here on the planet. He is up to something and part of it has to do with me and Alexis," Optimus continued.

"Sir," Hot Rod said. "What would Thrust want with the two of you?"

"Probably because we are part of Megatron's downfall," Alexis answered.

"Alexis is right," Optimus replied. "But that isn't what really concerns me. It's what happened in the last fight. We were discovered."

"Discovered?" Elita questioned. "You mean the humans know about us now?"

"Affirmative." Optimus looked at his mate. "We were forced to reveal ourselves to protect the humans. Alexis, Red Alert and Starscream were human at the time. We must show to the Humans that we are not the bad guys. Also Thrust nearly grabbed Alexis if it wasn't for Cyclonus and Demolisher."

"What are our orders?" Arcee asked.

"Honestly, I'm not sure yet. We have to stop Thrust and do panic control with the humans. Some of the humans are grateful for our help while others are not," Optimus answered.

"Optimus," June spoke up. "Perhaps, it might be best to do a press conference. With a press conference, it would show the world that you mean to protect them but also warning people of the dangers of the Decepticons."

Optimus nodded. "I'll take that into consideration."

"I like that idea," Elita agreed. "With us being exposed might as well do things the human proper way."

The other Autobots and humans agreed.

"Blaster," Optimus instructed. "Please show the others their quarters and around the base."

Blaster saluted and did as asked. The other Autobots dispersed from the gate room to do what they needed to do. All there was left in the gate room was the humans.

The three boys looked at each other and gave a slight smile.

"I'm confident we'll stop Thrust," Rad said.

"I agree," Billy said. "And the media, I'm sure the Autobots will be mostly welcomed here. They did save the humans."

"I doubt Alexis' father will be one of them," Sandy added.

The four boys and June looked at the teen girl. "What do you mean?" asked June.

Sandy turned to everyone. "He was pretty mad when he saw the Autobots and seeing what happened to Alexis, didn't help the situation. He so did not want Starscream to bring her here."

"Thomas has no choice in the matter," June explained. "He left her high and dry for three years and did not bother to see how she was doing. Alexis, I can tell, doesn't want anything to with him right now. To her, her only father is Optimus and he has done a good job at treating her like she was his daughter."

"And you have no problems with that?" Carlos asked.

"None. The Transformers are her extended family. I am her flesh and blood, but she has her extended robotic family to consider too."

"Wow," Carlos said. "No disrespect but when Alexis first became a Transformer, you could not accept that."

"That is because it happened so fast. Three years have gone by and she has tried to be a part of my life by visiting me. I had time to know the Autobots and have come to see them as great allies. It was not their fault Alexis became what she is. It's the being inside her."

"You know of Kiaudica?" Rad asked.

June half glared at the blond teen. "Of course, I have actually even spoke with her and she's told me much of her history. I feel sorry for her, she lost her life because of someone she loved. That's cruel. I'm just always startled when she speaks."

"Yeah, it can get confusing if you don't listen to the voice," Fred replied. "I have noticed that Alexis' voice goes soft."

"Yes, I have noticed that as well," June agreed.

The humans soon left the gate room, to go and do things.

-

Sandy again was walking the halls by herself, deep in her own thoughts. She knew she needed to speak with someone about her situation, but she really didn't want to speak with someone who was close to her. As she walked, she noticed Elita was walking around. The teen could see the femme was more familiarizing herself with the base. Taking a chance, Sandy called to Elita.

Elita-One was walking around the base wanting to better her knowledge on the place. She knew the base was once a cargo ship for the Mini-Cons when they were sent from Cybertron, she never knew it was that large. As she looked around, she heard a voice calling to her. She knew the voice wasn't an Autobot therefore assumed it came from a human. Looking to the floor, she saw the owner to the voice.

"Hello," Elita greeted as she walked over to the human and then bent lower to see her better. "What can I do for you?"

"Maybe that should be my line," Sandy said. "I have been living here on the base for a bit now."

"So I have heard," Elita said. "You did a good job too on keeping the humans in the church to remain calm during the battle."

"Thank you," Sandy commented. "But I wasn't the only one. June was there as well and of course Red Alert, Alexis and Starscream as humans."

"But they did not choose to stay with the humans in the basement, you did," Elita added. "And for that, that would have taken courage. Considering on knowing what could have happened."

"I suppose you're right," Sandy agreed. "Ummm…Elita…could…"

Elita noticed Sandy was stumbling on her words. Elita had been around a long time to know what the stumbling meant. Sandy was afraid of something. Being a warrior, Elita had seen it many times when some of her officers would grow a fear from something bad happening to them.

"I may not know you very well," Elita said, taking control of the situation. "But if you want to talk to me, I will listen. I have seen many of my officers feel the need to talk, but not sure who to talk to."

Elita watched as the teen started to cry. Seeing that the hallway wasn't the best place for some sort of touchy subject, she reached over and picked the teen up and walked away. Sandy stopped her tears long enough to see what was going on. Elita was carrying her somewhere. Sandy soon figured out where when Elita turned a corridor, which led to the Transformer quarters. Sandy grew quiet as the Autobot continued to walk until reaching her quarters.

Once entering the quarters, Elita walked over to her makeshift desk and gently set the human on it. The femme bot then took a seat at the desk.

"Now, we can talk without any prying optics or receptors," the pink Autobot said.

Sandy numbly nodded. "I just need to talk to someone. What's happening now is too important to have it messed up and my problems could hinder some performances. Especially with Alexis. She already had hindered performances and I do not wish to see that happen again."

"Yes, Alexis did inform me of that when it first happened. She really was beating herself up over it."

"Yeah, Alexis did tell me that she spoke with you, without permission," Sandy replied. "I was wondering if I can do the same."

"You talk to me, yes. Whatever you say will stay between us, unless you want it to go further."

"I am scared," Sandy admitted as tears stretched fourth again. "I'm so scared, I don't want to go into town."

"What would you have so scared?" Elita asked, showing concern in her voice.

"My…my…" she paused. "My…Dad…"

"I thought a daughter/father relationship was sacred?"

"Not in all cases," Sandy answered slowly. "Some daughters are abused and I'm…one of them." The last three words were whispered.

Elita gasped. "How bad?"

Sandy curled herself up and huddled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. "It…could have been worse," she whispered. She did not trust her voice. If her voice went louder she had a feeling she would lose the nerve to talk to nearly a complete stranger about her problems. "My parents forbade me to work this summer to look after my grandmother. When she passed away, the abuse started."

"What sort of abuse?"

"He'd hit me, mostly. I ran away from home to here to hide out and when I did finally go back home…it…it…got worse." She began to sob and shake violently. "Oh god! Elita, it was horrible. If June didn't get to me…" her words failed her as the sobs wracked her body.

Elita felt sudden sadness for the teen. She reached her hand forward and lightly curled her hand around the teen. She activated something in her circuitry to allow heat to radiate off her hand. Elita made a sudden gasp as Sandy reached forward and hugged one finger like a lifeline. For several minutes Elita remained quiet and allowed the teen to cry. When the girl finally got her emotions under control, she continued.

"My Dad wouldn't let me call anyone and when he caught me calling Alexis, he was so enraged…" Sandy took a gulp of air as she felt herself wanting to hyperventilate.

"Take slow breaths," Elita instructed. She saw what the teen was about to do. Elita might not have been Earth before but she did study up on human functions to know what could set them off for their emotions.

Sandy took several slow deep breaths and felt herself starting to calm down. When she was calmed enough, she continued. "I guess Alexis got very worried since next thing I knew I was being chased around the house, June arrived with Red Alert."

"Well that's good," Elita replied very gently.

"I'm not sure what really happened next…but I do know somehow the door got busted down and I was being pushed to Red Alert. My father was scared out of his mind."

"What was your father chasing you with?" Elita asked.

"Leather belts…wet towels…anything he could get his hands on to strike me…" Sandy really did not want to go into another crying jag. "He was so enraged, I thought he was going to kill me."

"You're safe now," Elita answered. "You're away from that man."

"Yeah but now I'm having nightmares that they didn't get to me in time," Sandy admitted.

"That's all they are is just dreams. I even have plagued dreams once in awhile."

Sandy looked up. "You have dreams. I didn't think Transformers could dream."

"They do and most times it's in a moment of time where we were most vulnerable. Most times dreams are there to help guide our way. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just acknowledge the dreams for what they are and move on. We will not let your father hurt you."

"And now we have Thrust to worry about and my father could know of the Autobots and possibly that I'm staying with them as Red Alert's Mini-Con had helped out with June to rescue me."

"And so what if he does," Elita said. "Your life and safety is more important than being around him. Besides all the human race is endanger, not just you. You are most safest here on the base."

"I'm so scared to leave that I'm actually doing home schooling now."

"Home schooling?" Elita questioned.

"It's when you do your learning from home instead of in a building with other people your age," Sandy explained. "The boys are doing the senior year of high school in a public school but I'm doing mine here at the base."

"Well, I am truly sorry for what you had to go through," Elita said. "Alexis does not know this?"

"No and neither does anyone else for that matter," Sandy rushed out. "Red Alert has tried to ask me, when it first happened, what happened but I wouldn't answer him. June is the one who best knows most of what happened, but not everything. The others, well they know I was abused, but how and why is a mystery to them. I'm not ready to tell them, but I know I needed to tell someone."

"I suppose harboring such feelings, could hinder a job and with Thrust here in town and the human population now knowing about us, it could make things a little more difficult to keep under wraps. I promise I will not tell anyone, but I will encourage you to perhaps you should speak to Alexis about this. She is, after all, your best friend. And I'm sure she wouldn't tell anyone."

"Actually she would," Sandy mumbled. "You don't know how persistent Starscream can get when Alexis has something bothering her. Not to mention Optimus. The two of them can sometimes come off as being like a wet blanket when Alexis has something weighting heavily down on her."

"Is there a problem with Starscream and Optimus knowing?" Elita asked. "Optimus is the Autobot leader and Starscream is Alexis' mate."

"I know, but right now, the less who knows the better."

Elita nodded. "It will stay our little secret. I do have secrets from my warriors that Optimus does not know. I am the Femme Autobot leader and Optimus cannot undermine that when a warrior speaks with me in confidence, just as I can't discuss with him if warriors speak with him."

Sandy hugged Elita's finger again. "Thank you, Elita. I had a feeling I could talk to you. I wanted to talk to someone who wasn't emotionally involved."

"That is actually sometimes a good idea," Elita explained. "Sometimes it's good to get a third party who doesn't know you or the situation. If you need anyone to speak with again, don't hesitate to ask me."

Sandy nodded. She yawned suddenly. "Perhaps I should go lay down."

Elita stood up, taking the girl with her and walked her to her quarters. When Sandy was in her own room, Elita turned to see Optimus behind her.

"What's going on?" he asked. He saw that Elita and just dropped Sandy off.

"Classified," Elita answered. She walked over to the Autobot leader and hugged him. "I've missed you," she whispered.

Optimus felt his own arms wrap around her. "I've missed you too. I had seen you exit your quarters with Sandy and I worried for her."

"I know you are," Elita said. "But it's something she has asked me not to reveal. It's her problem to reveal in due time. She will be fine now, trust me."

"Woman's intuition?" the Autobot leader inquired.

Elita looked up and smirked. "You could say that. Come on, we better work on what you'll say to the public."

The two Autobots pulled from their embrace and walked towards his quarters where they two could discuss on what to say to the public. What Optimus was going to have to say was not going to be easy for him. How could he tell the public to know who are the bad guys and good guys? He was grateful for Elita's presence, though he hated the idea of her being on Earth. But it was her decision to go and she was a warrior first before being his mate and he had to accept that, ages ago, but that didn't mean he had to like it.


End file.
